Badin Optimistic About Postseason After Falling To McNicholas To Finish Second In GCL Coed
Badin High School's Ian Long (right) battles Jake Szoldatis of McNicholas in the air Oct. 13, 2026, during a Greater Catholic League Coed Division boys soccer game at Penn Station Stadium in Cincinnati. The host Rockets won 2-0.
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By Rick Cassano
CINCINNATI – It was a strong Greater Catholic League Division campaign for Badin High School’s boys soccer team, even if it ended in disappointment.
The Rams and McNicholas finished tied for second place in the GCL Coed after the host Rockets got two goals from senior Conor Flynn to celebrate a 2-0 victory Tuesday night at Penn Station Stadium.
“Obviously that one hurts. We wanted the fourth league victory,” first-year Badin coach Brad Specht said. “These kids have proven they can win. We’ve taken it one day at a time and one opportunity at a time. We’ll continue to do that as long as we can. It’s a fun group to be around, and we’re far from done.”
Only one regular-season game – a trip to Waynesville on Thursday — remains for the Rams, who are 12-3-1 overall and 3-2 in the league. McNick (9-6-2, 3-2) completed its regular season with a four-game winning streak.
Specht didn’t want to lose the rivalry clash, but with Badin’s graduation losses from last year’s Division III Final Four squad and a new coaching staff on board this season, he said a 12-3-1 record should be a source of pride.
“Aug. 1 we had tryouts and we had conversations with the boys, and it was all about what you add to the locker room,” Specht said. “Obviously you’ve got to produce on the field. You’ve got to score and you’ve got to stop opportunities, but what do you add to the locker room? And every single boy that was selected for that team has added something to the locker room.
“It’s a team effort. We choose to attack it that way and everybody has a role and a job to do, and we’re having a lot of fun doing it.”
The Rams took fourth place in the GCL Coed last year with a 1-2-2 mark, then advanced all the way to the state semifinals for the first time and finished 17-4-3 after losing to eventual state champion Columbus Watterson.
Badin hasn’t won a league championship since sharing the 2004 North Division title with Kettering Alter. The Rams were 4-1 in GCL play that season, and this year marked the first time they’d even won three league games since 2004.
This year’s GCLC champion is Dayton Carroll (16-0-1, 5-0), which defeated Badin 3-1 on Sept. 15.
“I love this team. It’s been a great year,” Rams junior midfielder Charlie Hall said. “Coming into the season, I didn’t think we were going to be anywhere near as good as we were last year. Three wins in the GCL, I never would’ve expected that. I feel like we’re just a lot more connected this year. There’s a lot more chemistry.
“Losing this game doesn’t really change much. It’s really just focusing on the playoffs now and what we can do to prepare for that. I want to go far. I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that happens. Most of us have already been through it, so we know what’s coming.”
Tuesday’s defeat was exasperating for Badin, which controlled the ball and the tempo most of the night, yet played from behind almost the entire way.
Flynn scored past BHS goalkeeper Jacob Aichele in the first 134 seconds on Senior Night for McNick, which honored 14 seniors in a pregame ceremony. Flynn added his team-leading 12th goal of the season with 13:11 remaining in the contest.
“What makes it harder to deal with is the fact that you do feel like there’s a lot of positives on our end and we go home losers anyway, but that’s the game,” Specht said. “We’ll learn. We’ll grow. We’ll be better because of it.
“Naturally the first goal that early in the game, it’s a gut punch. You feel the pressure a little bit, but I think we felt like it’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming. Even the message at halftime was, ‘You’ve got to break down the brick wall for the first one and the rest will come.’ Credit to McNick. They put together a good plan and did what they had to do to keep it clean on their end.
“Conor Flynn is a heck of a player. He came out and finished his first opportunity, and they set in and put numbers behind the ball and we couldn’t break them down. We created a lot of chances in the first half and didn’t capitalize. In the second half, I felt like they played even more of a low block and we had a hard time with it.”
Hall felt like it was one of the Rams’ worst performances.
“We were definitely expecting to come out strong,” he said. “They do not have a good record and we thought we could pass right through them, but we came out slow. That first goal, we cannot let that happen.”
A.J. Goff totaled 14 saves in goal and Grayson Dillard contributed an assist for the Rockets, who are unbeaten in October.
“These boys in the last four games have played their rear ends off,” McNick coach Brian Goff said. “They’ve been disciplined, they’ve listened to what’s gone on in practice, they’ve applied those concepts, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.
“It’s been a great Senior Night. Like I told these kids today, they’ve been playing this game for about 14 years, depending on how old they are. That’s a career, so I just wanted them to go out, have fun and do their jobs.”
Goff said while the Rockets didn’t mount a lot of offensive surges, Flynn was opportunistic and the defense did the rest.
“We were living in our defensive third, and I didn’t like it,” Goff said. “I think we had 11 minutes and 23 second of possession in the first half. It wasn’t much better in the second half, but when a team’s chasing the game like that, we had to do what we had to do. Just keep it out of the goal.”
Both teams will begin Division III district play Oct. 24. Sixth-seeded McNick will travel to No. 3 Anderson in the South 4 bracket, while second-seeded Badin hosts No. 16 Edgewood in the South 2 bracket.
Specht said he was happy with the Rams’ draw. If the seeds play out, Badin will face third-seeded Tipp City Tippecanoe from the North 2 bracket for a district championship.
There will be pressure for the Rams to match last year’s tournament success. Specht said that’s fine.
“They haven’t forgotten last year,” he said. “It’s part of who they are, and that’s what drives them. The big thing for us is these guys have no fear. There is no mental barrier. They don’t care who lines up across from them. They’re going at it no matter what.”
Badin has seven players with double-digit points this year. That group includes Hall (17 goals, 12 assists), seniors Vincent Greene (10 goals, nine assists) and Nate Von Bargen (six goals, five assists), juniors Ian Long (six goals, two assists), Parker Young (two goals, nine assists) and Tyler Buschelmann (five goals), and freshman Caleb Smith (four goals, six assists).
