HAMILTON — Eric Hickey was certain the Badin High School boys soccer team’s postseason journey would have to go through the Greater Catholic League Coed.
After all, “I think we’re the best league in the state — top to bottom,” the coach said.
Two GCL Coed foes went toe-to-toe Tuesday night.
Badin held the advantage at the halftime break before McNicholas scored two second-half goals to lift the Rockets past the Rams 3-2 in a Division III district semifinal at Virgil Schwarm Stadium.
“We have to slug our way through the GCL, again, to even get out of districts,” Hickey said. “All the other GCL teams faced the same thing. We have to fight each other just to get out.
“It’s hard to beat a GCL team twice,” Hickey added. “We knew that when McNick jumped in the sectional with us, we were going to have to battle through them to get out. We play them 10 times, we each win five.”
Badin, which beat the Rockets 2-1 at McNicholas on Sept. 17, finished its season 11-4-5 and graduates seven seniors — captains Noah Ellis and Rowan Brown, along with Ian Greene, Trevor Friedel, Rece Auciello, Mason Cornwell and Antonio Lemos.
“We played 20 games and lost four,” said Hickey, who wrapped up his 11th year at the Ram helm. “I think there’s a gazillion other teams that would swap places with us for that. But for us as a program, we’re ready to take another step.
“We had a good season. I wanted us to have a great season. I think we should have advanced. I think the boys know they should have advanced.”
Nick Geiser gave McNicholas a 1-0 lead when he blasted a loose ball rocket into the back of the net at the 32:22 mark of the first half.
Freidel grabbed possession of the ball after it slipped past Rockets goalkeeper Brian Sparks and scored to make it 1-1 with about 25 minutes left before the halftime break.
Brown scored on a free kick laser that hit the left side of the net with about 10 minutes remaining in the half to give Badin a 2-1 advantage.
Then Aidan Beverly connected on a penalty kick with 22:53 left to play, and McNick grabbed its first lead when Shane Auer scored with 7:21 remaining.
Badin misfired on a couple corner kicks down the stretch, and McNicholas held on. The Rockets face Carroll in the district finals Saturday at 4 p.m. at Lakota West.
“I thought we had a lot of control, and then the penalty kick,” Hickey said. “For the life of me, I have no idea in the world what that guy is calling on that penalty kick. But they got it, and they put it home. All of a sudden, they’ve got life.
“We were determined not to go to overtime and PKs, and that’s on me,” Hickey added. “But we were determined not to do that. So, we kind of moved some stuff and tried to attack. It left some openings. I’ve got a veteran back line, and that shouldn’t happen. That goal should not happen, but it did. Now we go home, and that sucks.
“The third goal was just us pushing numbers forward. We just didn’t cover it.”
Hickey said Tuesday’s rematch between Badin and McNicholas was similar to the regular season meeting.
“I don’t think we were as sharp as we were then,” Hickey said. “The penalty kick was gigantic. It’s 20 minutes to go in the game, and we’re up 2-1. They muck it up. They make it ugly. It’s just foul and kick and run and bruise — which that’s their style. We know that.”
Hickey said his Rams were used to playing at Spooky Nook — their home field throughout the season. Hamilton’s Virgil Schwarm is roughly smaller compared to Spooky Nook.
“On this little field, they could kind of boxed us in,” Hickey elaborated. “We’re a different team at Spooky Nook. Here we’re kind of boxed in. It takes away our advantage. We’re losing monster yards on both sides so that we can spread out. Look how many throw-ins. When you play on a small field, it turns into an 80-minute throw-in — and that’s just not us.”
Badin has lost in the district semifinals three years in a row. The Rams fell to Oakwood (2023) and Chaminade Julienne (2022) — both on penalty kicks.
“At the end of the day, I told our guys that this was 100% on me,” Hickey said. “When we lose games, I take 100% of the blame. When we win games, the boys made plays. When we lose games, I didn’t make enough decisions to get us a win.
“So, in this game, I apologized to them afterwards and told them that I didn’t do a good enough job of making adjustments at halftime to get us this win. For the seniors, I hate it. I hate it.”
