For most of the Division II East District soccer final, it looked like regulation would end the same way it did the last time Baylor and McCallie met: in a scoreless tie.

With 11:12 left on the clock Thursday at McCallie, Red Raiders senior Carter Paden made sure it didn’t.

His goal ended almost 150 minutes of deadlock between the rivals and led the way for a 2-0 Baylor win that secures the district title and a home substate match for the defending D-II champion.

Staff Photo by John Rawlston-- Baylor's Kelly Smith, left, and McCallie's Hill Johnston leap to try to gain control of the ball during their soccer match at McCallie Thursday.

“This means a lot,” Paden said. “It gives us a home game a week from Saturday, and that’s big. Otherwise, we beat McCallie, and that’s always huge.”

Baylor was seeded second behind the Blue Tornado for the district playoffs and advanced to the final with a win over Knoxville Webb on Tuesday. Red Raiders coach Jimmy Weekley was concerned about how having played that match would affect his team against McCallie, and the Blue Tornado created several dangerous chances in the first half.

Max Crabtree had a near-miss on a header, and a shot from Clint Parker on a near-post run went off the woodwork. McCallie had two opportunities early in the second period with Baylor keeper Danny Van Valkinburgh out, and with 17:30 to play, the Blue Tornado’s Matt Higgins came out to make a save one-on-one.

Another save from Higgins in the 69th minute led to a Baylor corner kick, and the shot from Kelly Smith bounced toward the goal before it was headed out by a McCallie defender. As the bouncing continued, Paden was there to put it away.

“They were knocking it around in the box, and the ball was scrambling all around,” Paden said. “It got knocked down to me and I took a touch forward, then I turned and hit it far post. I didn’t hit it very hard, but there was no one there to block it.”

With the lead, the Red Raiders turned to their defense, which has allowed just two goals all season, to preserve the win.

“You score a goal like that and it really changes the momentum, especially with that much time left,” Weekley said. “At that point, we’re going to change the way we’re playing because I know they’re going to push people forward. I just hoped we could play well enough defensively to get the result we needed.

“They’re a good team and well coached. We just happened to put our chances away.”

The Red Raiders finished another one on a Tanner Taylor shot at the beginning of stoppage time, securing the first loss of the season for McCallie.

“In the second half, I thought we were giving up too many restarts,” Blue Tornado coach Tony Meyers said. “With a team like Baylor, you can’t afford that. On the first goal they scored, we just didn’t do a good job of clearing. Matt never saw it.

“The second one, we had changed our formation to press a little more, so that happens in that scenario. I told our guys at the end of the game that they went out and gave 100 percent effort. We did everything we wanted to do. We just didn’t come out on the right side today.”

Baylor will host the D-II Mid-east Region tournament Saturday, when the Red Raiders play the No. 1 team from the Middle district to determine the overall top seeding for next Saturday’s substate games. McCallie will play the Middle’s No. 2 team Saturday and will visit a West team for a substate match.

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