“No. I already had told him we were going to call a timeout,” he said about talking to his quarterback.
Badin senior Colt Emerson ran up from his position in the shotgun to under center and after a single verbal shout Alter jumped offsides to give the Rams a first down.
It was enough to help Badin hang on and survive a 35-28 win against Alter in a Division III, Region 12 quarterfinal game on Friday at the Matandy SportsPlex in Hamilton.
“We just were trying to get them to jump,” Yordy said. “[McNicholas] got us on it two weeks ago, so we practiced it a little bit in our time off.”
Credit: Steven Wright
Credit: Steven Wright
The third-seeded Rams advanced to play second-seeded Tippecanoe (11-0) on Friday, Nov. 14 at Tipp City Park. The Red Devils defeated seventh-seeded Talawanda 55-7 on Friday.
Badin (10-1) got the extra practice time to work on its deception due to earning a bye in the region. Those little things and others made big differences Friday.
Junior Hudson Heid caught two touchdowns for the Rams and his second coming late in the third quarter became the game-winning score.
“We knew that in warmups we saw [Quardrell Thomas] was not playing today,” Heid said. “It was kind of a late decision, but we decided that we were going to attack that new player that went in there and just capitalize on what we can.”
Credit: Steven Wright
Credit: Steven Wright
Badin continued its momentum from the first meeting between the two teams, a 28-14 Badin win on Oct. 17, and overwhelmed Alter early. The Rams raced out to a 21-0 lead with three touchdowns in the first quarter.
An Alter fumble by senior Noah Jones set up the third Badin score. On the ensuing play, Emerson connected with senior James Brink on a 25-yard touchdown pass.
The Knights moved the ball for the first time on its next drive and got a 7-yard touchdown run by Rod Owens Jr. to get on the scoreboard. A kickoff returned for a touchdown by Brink immediately allowed the Rams to regain their advantage and maintain their three-score lead into halftime.
“You can’t score a touchdown and then come back and let them return a touchdown on the kickoff,” Alter head coach Ed Domsitz said.
Alter ran its offense using a spread attack in the first half and switched to the wishbone after the break.
Junior Drew Cripps had a pair of touchdown runs for the Knights, which began mounting its comeback in the second half and began to look unstoppable with the change in offensive philosophy. Alter found the end zone on all three of its second half possessions but never got the ball back with a chance to tie the score.
Credit: Steven Wright
Credit: Steven Wright
“I’m pleased when we went to it, but I thought we were going to have to go back to the shotgun earlier than we did,” Domsitz said. “We would have jumped into the spread because that’s our two-minute offense.”
Alter attempted a short kick after cutting its deficit to seven and Badin came out of a scramble with possession. After the Alter defense twice produced losses for Badin, senior Lem Grayson nearly rushed for a first down to set up the deciding fourth down non-snap.
Emerson completed 10 of 14 passes for 132 yards and three touchdowns. Grayson ran the ball for 114 yards on 20 carries, including a 39-yard burst on the play after Emerson drew the Alter defense offsides to help run out the clock.
All five of Badin’s touchdowns came on plays that were at least 20 yards or longer.
“We made it a lot closer than we had to,” Heid said. “We were definitely in control at the beginning, wheels kind of came apart, but just did enough to get into that next round.”
Cripps led Alter in rushing with 143 yards on 17 carries. Owens had 89 yards rushing, but was only 2 of 9 on passing attempts and threw two interceptions.
“Credit to coach Domsitz as those kids could have very easily packed it in, especially early, and they didn’t,” Yordy said. “They battled, and we talk about at halftime they weren’t going to quit, but we battled and showed some composure, some resiliency there, and got out of there with a win.”
Credit: Steven Wright
Credit: Steven Wright
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