Hamilton blanks Badin in crosstown showdown

Gracen Goldsmith scored two touchdowns and the Big Blue defense shut down the Rams to register a 15-0 victory in a season-opening city rivalry showdown at Fairfield’s Alumni Stadium.

“Oh, man, you know how much it means to our program — our school,” Crouch said. “We’ve had a taste in our mouth for a year. We thought we were a better team last year and kind of laid some eggs in the first game.

“But not taking anything away from (Badin),” Crouch added. “They were great last year. They’re great this year. Well-coached. You can see that from a mile away.

“But our kids are resilient. They’ve worked hard for three years. A lot of them guys starting tonight were three-year starters. We’ve got some dudes. But we’ve got to get better. We’ve got a lot to work on.”

Badin beat Hamilton in last season’s opener 18-0 at Virgil Schwarm Stadium. That was the first time the schools had met since 2000. The Rams lead the series 4-2.

“Coming out of this, we’re going to think positive,” Badin coach Nick Yordy said. “It’s been a while since we’ve lost a regular season game, but it was going to happen. We didn’t even address it.

“But I think we’ve got a pretty good football team. For coming out here against a team like that — playing the way we did — I think we can build on that with some confidence.”

Defense outshined offense in the first half — for both squads.

Goldsmith finished with 95 yards on 21 carries and his two scores, one of which gave Hamilton a 6-0 lead with 1:47 left in the second quarter. Badin blocked the extra point.

“It was a team effort,” Goldsmith said. “I love my guys. I couldn’t have done it without them. We’ve been working hard for this for a long time. Had a bad taste in our mouth from last year, so we took it personal this year.”

Hamilton took the initial second half drive down the field — slicing over six minutes off the clock — and ended it with a Goldsmith 1-yard plunge. Big Blue’s two-point conversion pass failed, keeping the score at 12-0 with 5:50 to go in the third.

“Just punching and punching,” said Goldsmith, who credited his team’s offensive line. “We’ve been working on that all summer.”

“It got our defense tired,” Yordy said. “They converted a couple third and longs, when you want to get off the field in those situations. Offense had been sitting for a while. But hey, credit to them. They’re a good football team. They played pretty well tonight.”

Hamilton’s Connor Stephens booted a 29-yard field goal to make it 15-0 with 9:36 remaining, and Badin wasn’t able to forge a comeback the rest of the way.

“We won the whole week of practice,” Goldsmith said. “We was prepared for this moment. We’ve been preparing for this moment for a long time. We knew this was coming. We just had to put in the work to get it. We got the outcome that we got.”

Rams senior running back Lem Grayson — the only offensive starter who come back from last year’s squad — was held to 56 yards on 10 carries. Badin quarterback Garrett Konesky connected on 7 of 8 passes for just 29 yards. Konesky led the Rams with 64 yards rushing.

“I think our defense played a really good football game,” Yordy said. “They were out there a lot — pretty much the whole third quarter, most of the second half. They battled. They were tired. They battled through it. I saw a lot of fight in our kids, and I’m happy with that. I’m proud of them for that. They gave great effort.

“We were two or three plays away from really being in that game. We were in the game for three and a half quarters. We saw some young guys get some good experience. We’ve got to get better, and I have faith that we will.”

Badin (0-1) hosts St. Francis DeSales next Friday at Hamilton.

“It’s not going to get any easier next week,” Yordy said. “I think we have a really tough schedule. Our kids are going to learn from this. There were some mistakes that we made that are fixable. But very, very pleased with their effort.”

Hamilton (1-0) opens Greater Miami Conference play at Lakota West next Friday.

“Our defense is really, really good,” Crouch said. “Unfortunately, we have our schedule. Now, we’re going into our schedule, and we’ve got to be really, really good. We’ve got to tighten some things up.”