Aichele’s Heroics Key Badin Past Tippecanoe For Second Straight D-III District Championship

By Rick Cassano

TROTWOOD – Jacob Aichele found himself in the athletic pressure cooker Saturday afternoon and admitted it was a little nerve-wracking.

“But it’s more on the fun side,” the Badin High School junior goalkeeper said. “We get an opportunity to play the game we love every single day. Just got to go show out.”

Aichele took that mentality and ran with it for the Rams boys soccer team, which outlasted Tipp City Tippecanoe to claim their second straight Division III district championship.

It was a 1-1 affair through regulation and two 15-minute overtime periods before Badin, a state semifinalist last year, prevailed 2-0 in penalty kicks to ignite a green-and-white celebration at Trotwood-Madison.

“It feels great. The boys deserve this,” said first-year Rams coach Brad Specht, whose squad improved to 16-3-1 and is 9-1-1 over its last 11 games. “At the beginning of the year, we talked about how our goal is to make memories along the way, and we made a memory today.

“We’re going to keep showing up and putting in the work. We choose to challenge ourselves not to results, but to the pillars that we believe in. This is the expectation every year. We want to be in these moments, and for the boys to do it two years in a row with Tipp, that makes it special. I’ve got a feeling we’ll see them again in the future in the district-finals game.”

Aichele was the key figure on his 17th birthday. He didn’t allow the Red Devils to get the ball past him all day – Tipp’s lone score was a Badin own goal – and shutting out an opponent in PKs doesn’t happen very often.

“Jacob was a bad dude today,” Specht said. “He craves that. He wants the moment. He wants the boys to put the weight on his shoulders. And he stepped up to the plate big.”

It was the Rams’ second consecutive triumph in penalty kicks, having ousted La Salle on Tuesday.

“That’s the fun part,” Specht said. “I told these guys I was more nervous five minutes in than I was in PKs. That’s something we do every day. There’s no doubt when we get to that part, we’re walking away with the win.”

Badin knocked off Tippecanoe on this field at the same stage of last year’s tournament and will get a regional rematch with Turpin (17-0-4) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at Centerville’s Alumni Stadium. The Rams earned a shootout triumph over the Spartans in the 2025 regional finals.

Junior center back Greyson Kelley said he wouldn’t have believed Badin would be 16-3-1 back when the season started.

“I would’ve said you’re crazy,” Kelley said. “With all the seniors we lost, I didn’t think we’d be here, but we are. I guess the mentality of the team is just not giving up every minute we’re out there.”

And he sees no reason why the Rams can’t continue their roll.

“Honestly, this feels good,” Kelley said. “But I feel like there’s more to get to.”

Badin had the better run of play most of the afternoon and consistently pressured Tipp goalie Cole Venters, who was spectacular at times to keep it 1-1 through 110 minutes.

The Red Devils (15-3-2) went up 1-0 with 21:35 left in the first half when Wes Tipton delivered a corner kick toward the BHS goal and Kelley inadvertently headed the ball past Aichele.

“It happens – and it hurt,” Kelley said. “The ball was curling in and I thought I could get it clear, but I misread it and I underjumped. Just unlucky. But I got my getback in PKs.”

The Rams responded just under eight minutes later when Parker Young scored off a Charlie Hall throw-in. And that was the end of the scoring until PKs rolled around.

Red Devils coach Joel Slyman said Venters was “exceptional,” but he didn’t really want to face Badin in PKs because of the Rams’ experience in those situations over the last two seasons.

“I felt like the first overtime was the time that we could’ve just ended it,” Slyman said. “We had a lot of good throws and corners, and we just couldn’t put it away.”

In the first round of PKs, Tipp’s Logan McEntyre was off the mark and Badin’s Young had his attempt blocked by Venters. Aichele stopped a Tipton shot and Kelley converted for the Rams in Round 2. Aichele got another block on the Red Devils’ Owen Vonderheide and Ian Long connected for Badin in Round 3.

Tipp’s Mason Mader then misfired to start Round 4, giving the Rams their clinching moment.

“I was way calmer today than I was against La Salle,” Aichele said. “I was pretty chill today because I knew we were going to be able to win. We knew we were going to slaughter pens and move forward.”

Aichele said he learned a lot watching fellow keeper Cole Parr, who’s now playing at Capital University, turn in multiple standout performances in PKs last season.

“Without last year, I wouldn’t have known what a playoff environment in pens would be like,” Aichele said. “It was nice to see firsthand how those work before I actually had to go out this year and make saves.”

Specht said there’s no doubt that Parr was fantastic last year, “but Jacob’s writing his own book. He’s put his stamp on it two games in a row.”

The Badin coach felt his team played well across the board, and Kelley was a strong part of the defensive effort at center back. He played that position last year and moved to the midfield this season, then returned to center back because of an injury early in the campaign.

The Rams trailed against La Salle and Tipp before rallying to win. Kelley said that trend of falling behind needs to stop, though Specht said the Red Devils are a high-quality unit.

“I thought Tipp was fantastic,” he continued. “They have a style of play that they believe in. Joel does a phenomenal job, and they are a challenge to beat. It was a fight all the way. They were dangerous every single time on set pieces.

“For us, I felt like we’ve had some really good training sessions leading up to this. We put together a plan and the boys were bought in and prepared. It was about coming out and executing, and we did that.”

Slyman said Badin may have some new faces this year, but the Rams’ style of play hasn’t changed much.

“They play hard. They’re on top of you,” Slyman said. “They’re honestly kind of like us. They live and die on the throws and corners, and they’re dangerous on set pieces.

“Our guys did everything we asked. We felt really good about our game plan coming in and our scouting report. We take a lot of pride in being prepared for an opponent. It just didn’t happen today, but it’s not because we didn’t put everything we had out there.”

Tipp won the Division II state championship in 2023, but has now lost in the district finals the last three years.

“2023 is kind of in the distance. We want to get back to winning a district championship,” Slyman said. “We got so close, but you hope that we have so many young guys on our squad this year that they see the frustration and what it takes to get there.”

All D-III regional semifinals will be played Wednesday. Dayton Carroll (20-0-1) and Vandalia Butler (14-5-1) will meet at 7 p.m. at Troy, and the winner will face either Badin or Turpin for the regional title at 2 p.m. on Nov. 8 at Beavercreek.

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