Football

Badin’s Late Comeback Falls Short As Withrow Comes Away With 21-13 Victory In D-II Playoff Opener

Badin High School's Balin Wong charges into Withrow quarterback Sa'Vion Davis on Oct. 30, 2026, during a Division II, Region 8 playoff opener at the Matandy SportsPlex in Hamilton. Withrow advanced with a 21-13 victory.

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By Rick Cassano

HAMILTON – The season came to an end for Badin High School’s football team Friday night in the Division II, Region 8 playoffs, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort.

The Rams nearly got tripled in yardage against visiting Withrow and fell behind by 14 points in the second half before a comeback came up short in a 21-13 defeat at the Matandy SportsPlex.

“That’s Badin football. We’re never going to tuck our tail and give up,” said Badin senior safety/wide receiver Hudson Heid, who had two interceptions and nine tackles. “I feel like the vibe around school and around everyone was that we didn’t really have a shot at this game. Everyone felt like we were underdogs going up to Division II.

“I’m just so proud of this team because we did not take that approach. We were in this game. It’s going to come down to one or two plays in these types of games, but we played until that last snap. That says a lot about this team and this program.”

It was the Rams’ first opening-round postseason defeat since 2015 and marked the end of a 7-4 campaign. Badin dropped four of its last seven games after a 4-0 start.

Injuries hit the eighth-seeded Rams during Friday’s affair and they used a quarterback (senior L.T. King) who said he hadn’t played the position since taking a few snaps as an eighth-grader. Eight penalties for 59 yards didn’t help, including a huge holding call when the hosts were driving down the stretch.

“I think our whole team played their butts off,” Badin coach Nick Yordy said. “We were giving up like 200 pounds across the board and they were probably better than us athletically, and we’ve got a chance to win in the fourth quarter. What else can you ask for? We just couldn’t get rid of some mistakes.”

No. 9 seed Withrow (8-3) won the yardage war 356-123 and got standout performances from quarterback Sa’Vion Davis, running back Dion Clardy and wide receiver Charles Alexander Jr., advancing to a regional quarterfinal at No. 1 Anderson (9-1) next Friday.

Davis was particularly detrimental to Badin’s cause, rushing 22 times for 134 yards while completing 11-of-19 passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns, both to Iowa State commit Alexander (five catches, 84 yards). Clardy had 16 carries for 53 yards and a TD.

“We were getting pressure on the quarterback. We just couldn’t get him down,” Yordy said. “Credit to him. He’s a heck of an athlete.”

Tigers coach Anthony Berry said Davis “has a will to win. That’s his 22nd win already as a junior. He comes prepared every night to lead our team to victory.”

Withrow lost the turnover battle 2-1 and saw lots of yellow flags flying through the air, totaling 15 penalties for 126 yards. Berry conceded it wasn’t pretty, but winning always trumps style points.

“That just comes with us having the schedule that we have,” Berry said. “We had been in almost every situation we could think of this season, so it was us being battle tested and being able to withstand penalties and bad plays and understanding that Badin was not a team we were just going to run over.

“Badin threw everything at us tonight. We just kept chopping wood and chopping wood, not panicking and staying poised.”

The punt game wasn’t kind to Withrow as the Tigers twice mishandled punt snaps and got tackled for a loss. The second instance was particularly painful.

Thanks to some big-time pressure from the Rams defensive lineman Balin Wong (nine tackles, 4.5 for loss), Withrow was staring at fourth-and-39 from its own 15 in the fourth quarter. A high snap led to Bryon Howard getting tackled at the 1-yard line.

Chase Even scored on the next play for Badin. The extra point was blocked, but it was 21-13 with 7:54 left.

The Rams then got the ball back on Heid’s second interception and had it near midfield when Even picked up a first down on a nice fourth-down run, only to have the play wiped out by a holding call. An illegal-procedure penalty pushed Badin back another 5 yards, and that led to a punt.

BHS ended up with one more possession, starting at its own 41 with 1:26 left, and got slapped with another holding penalty. An incomplete pass on fourth-and-16 ended the Rams’ hopes with 0:33 on the clock.

“It was a tough fight. We knew it was going to be gritty,” said King, a senior who’s usually a wide receiver. “Everybody played as hard as they can. I couldn’t be prouder of the guys. I’m going to miss them, that’s for sure.”

Badin used Davis Martin and Jimmy Gajewski at quarterback last week, but Yordy decided to go a different route this week with King, who said he found out the move was in the works after last Friday’s 14-0 loss to McNicholas.

“We wanted to run the ball and keep the clock moving,” Yordy said. “We felt like L.T. gave us our best chance to win the game, and I thought the kid played his tail off. What an unbelievable effort by him.”

King carried the ball 23 times for 51 yards and had a game-tying 14-yard touchdown in the second quarter. He also converted 6-of-11 passes for 37 yards.

“I tried to go in there not being scared or nervous, which was obviously kind of hard,” King said. “I definitely had butterflies, but I feel like I tried my hardest and left it all out there.”

Even banged up his right shoulder in the McNick game and hurt it again Friday, going out with 1:22 left in the opening period. He wanted to return to action pretty quickly, but was held out until the second half.

“Everybody called it a stinger when I hurt it last week, and I’ve never really had those before,” Even said. “This week I took it kind of light, but once everybody landed right on top of me tonight, that kind of aggravated it again.”

He totaled 35 yards on eight carries and said there was a little pain on hits after halftime, but his adrenaline took over.

“You don’t even think about it during the play,” Even said. “I was doing right by our seniors and giving everything I could. I had a great bond with these seniors. Last year they took me under their wing and taught me everything. I have nothing but thanks for them.”

“Chase is just another tough kid,” Yordy said. “We tried to just use him on runs. We didn’t want him to block anybody.”

Heid and King will be playing collegiately at Eastern Michigan and Saginaw Valley State, respectively. Both players decided against graduating early and will finish out the school year at Badin.

Heid’s two interceptions gave him three for the season.

“I wanted to do it for myself tonight,” Heid said. “I feel like I’ve had a mediocre year. I didn’t play to my full potential, so tonight felt good personally, but it doesn’t matter when the team doesn’t come out with the outcome you want.”

He’s undecided about whether he’ll play baseball in the spring. Regardless, his focus will be preparing for college football.

Heid said his time on the gridiron at Badin was special.

“I’ve been through it all,” he said. “I was down at Fairfield for home games and driving all the way out to Edgewood for home games, then I got to see this beautiful stadium built and this senior class grow. Our freshman year we didn’t win a game. Now we’re sticking with the biggest talent in Cincinnati. I’m just so proud of everybody.”

King admitted that he shed a couple tears as his prep career came to a close. He said he’s loved playing football for the Rams.

“It was a fun season,” King said. “Coming into the year, we thought the beginning of the season was going to be harder than the second half, and we couldn’t have been any more wrong. We got through some early games with some big scores, but the second half of the season was a grind.

“Growing up, I was at Hamilton and converted to private school in middle school. I remember watching Badin come out here and play and I was like, ‘I want to play for them one day,’ and I got to live out the dream.”

Yordy said the Rams’ record wasn’t what they were hoping for, but he felt the season was a learning experience.

“There’s definitely a lot of positives that we can take and build off of,” Yordy said. “I think we learned some things from this group of seniors that we’ve got to carry on, and I think we’ve learned some things about ourselves as coaches.

“I think there’s a lot of teams out there that would be happy with a 7-4 record. We’re just going to keep plugging away. This stings a little bit, but we’ll move on and about a month from now we’ll start going back to work to get ready for next year.”

Badin Athletics