McNicholas shut out Badin 14-0 on Friday, Oct. 23, at Matandy SportsPlex to claim the outright Greater Catholic League Co-ed football championship and snap Badin's eight-year conference title streak.
Max Orlando broke the scoreless tie with a 54-yard touchdown run with 11:42 left in the second quarter. Minutes later, he recovered a fumble at the McNicholas 1-yard line to kill Badin's best scoring chance of the half, according to WLWT.
Joseph Reuss added a 10-yard touchdown run with 1:04 left before halftime, aided by two Badin personal fouls on the same play. Bobo Iliev converted both extra points. All 14 points came in the second quarter.
The Rockets' defense controlled the game from the opening snap. Max Hamilton recorded a sack on Badin's first possession, and the Rams never found the end zone. Badin reached the McNicholas 31 by the end of the third quarter but turned the ball over on downs at the 22.
Across five conference games, McNicholas allowed a total of 21 points, holding every GCL Co-ed opponent to seven or fewer.
The win gave McNicholas (8-2, 5-0 GCL Co-ed) its seventh consecutive victory. The Rockets won their first conference championship since 2017 and their first in the league’s unified six-team format, introduced in 2019, according to Journal-News.
Badin (7-3, 3-2) entered the game with a chance to extend its championship run to nine straight seasons.
McNicholas earned the No. 3 seed in the OHSAA Division III, Region 12 playoffs, according to official pairings released Oct. 25. The Rockets receive a first-round bye and will host a regional quarterfinal Friday, Nov. 6, against the winner of No. 6 Indian Hill and No. 11 Alter.
Indian Hill hosts Alter at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, when first-round playoff games begin across Ohio.
