Series history
Hamilton Catholic/Badin leads the football series with Fenwick 14-1. Here are the results:
1954 Hamilton Catholic, 20-12
1955 Hamilton Catholic, 45-6
1956 Hamilton Catholic, 64-0
1957 Hamilton Catholic, 45-0
1958 Hamilton Catholic, 14-6
1959 Hamilton Catholic, 22-12
1969 Badin, 28-12
1970 Badin, 21-0
1971 Badin, 18-0
1972 Badin, 8-0
1997 Badin, 35-6
2005 Fenwick, 24-17
2006 Badin, 23-0
2007 Badin, 35-7
2008 Badin, 42-0
HAMILTON — He didn’t know how his Fenwick High School football team was going to get it done.
Bill Tenore is Badin’s coach now, but he was coaching the Falcons in 2005 and facing a difficult matchup against the Rams in Week 2 at Virgil Schwarm Stadium.
“I can remember Badin physically that year as one of the biggest teams I’d seen in high school uniforms,” Tenore said. “I was wondering how we could play with this team.”
Fenwick found a way, using smashmouth football to knock off the Rams 24-17. It’s the only time the Falcons have ever beaten Badin.
The 2005 campaign was the last of Tenore’s four seasons at the Fenwick helm. He took the Falcons to the playoffs twice.
The 1988 Badin graduate then spent three years in Georgia before coming home last March to become leader of the Rams. And on Saturday night, Oct. 17, Badin and Fenwick will square off again at Schwarm Stadium.
“In 2005, I was standing on the visiting sideline,” Tenore said. “It’s been kind of a full-circle journey to Georgia and back and 50 yards across the field.”
His Falcons were playing Terry Malone-like football in 2005. In the triumph over Badin, Fenwick ran 54 times for 160 yards and completed 1-of-2 passes for minus-5 yards.
Tenore said he didn’t have conflicting emotions because he was coaching against Dave Wirth, not the retired Malone.
“I had more Badin graduates coaching at Fenwick than Badin had coaching for them,” said Tenore, pointing to himself, Joe Schlager and Tony Mattia. “We really wanted to win that game.”
Included in that contest were back-to-back kickoff returns for touchdowns. The Rams’ Daniel Hurst (now a Badin assistant coach) opened the second half with a school-record 98-yard TD, and Fenwick’s Tyler Purcell countered with an 83-yard return.
The winning touchdown by Prentice White came on a familiar Malone play, inside belly right.
“We ran five simple plays the whole game,” Tenore said. “If ever there was a vintage win, that would be it. We had a very tough mind-set we instilled in those players.”
He remembers a lot of little things about that night.
“It’s kind of surreal,” Tenore said. “I can remember the Fenwick bus. We rode down Eaton Avenue and went by my old street, Mark Avenue. We drove past all the West Side landmarks like Flub’s.
“We beat my alma mater and rode back out of town, and then I rode back into town because my wife and I lived on Emerson Avenue,” he added. “Now I live on Sanders Drive, and I can see all the lights and hear every announcement coming from the stadium.”
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