McCallie's Thomas Priest pushes forward during the second half.
photo by Greg Davick
During stoppage time of Friday’s Division II Mid-East rivalry soccer match, all Baylor wanted was for the final whistle to blow, while all McCallie could do was hope for more time.
The Blue Tornado had rallied for an equalizer with 8:07 left, but the clock ran out on the host team’s attempt at a go-ahead goal as the Baylor defense held on to preserve a 1-1 tie.
“It didn’t seem like there was as much stoppage time as I thought there was going to be,” McCallie coach Chris Cushenbery said.
“I wish the game would’ve lasted 15 more minutes. We would have loved to keep playing, because we really felt like we were going to get that second goal.”
Despite bringing in a 10-win record, and top-10 state and national rankings, McCallie fell behind 19 minutes into the match when the Red Raiders’ Florian Kirschenbauer sent in a ball from Sam Stewart.
Baylor coach Curtis Blair said the goal provided a big boost for his team, which has struggled offensively this season.
“I think we started pretty well,” Blair said. “We knew they were going to come out with a lot of intensity and try to get an early goal to get their fans into it. We felt like if we could sneak one in early, we could at least try to keep the fans out of it, and we did.
“Throughout our season, one thing we’ve struggled with is scoring goals. That early goal gave us some momentum and some confidence. Going into the second half, we just tried to build off that and play four 10-minute games.”
Several second-half yellow cards, however, slowed Baylor’s momentum and provided McCallie with opportunities to get back in the game. In the 72nd minute, the Blue Tornado finished one.
Junior Drew Viscomi, who recently committed to play college soccer at Northwestern University, scored his 23rd goal of the season when he fired a free kick off the frame and into the net to equalize for McCallie.
“That was an unbelievable strike,” Cushenbery said. “It definitely gave us a boost.”
“We started five juniors, four sophomores, a freshman and an eighth-grader. I think they started seven seniors. They’re a veteran team and we’re a young group, but I’m proud of our guys. I thought they battled hard. I don’t think we ever felt like we weren’t going to get a goal. They had good energy.”
The Blue Tornado continued to fight for a go-ahead goal as time wound down, but the Red Raiders’ defense limited those chances, and keeper Cannon Kelly came through with the stops Baylor needed to preserve the tie.
“We felt really good, because we didn’t think they really created a lot through the flow of play,” Blair said. “The thing we have to work on is giving away too many fouls and corner kicks. Those are things we’ve done all year long, and I figured that if we continued doing them, they were eventually going to score one.
“Drew just had a great shot. There’s nothing you can do about that one. If it pings off the inside of the post and goes in, you just say congratulations and move on. But I was proud of our defense. I thought we got numbers behind the ball, and our guys continued to work even after we gave up a goal. And I thought we had some chances to make it 2-0.”
With the tie, Baylor’s record is now 2-6-4 overall and 0-0-2 in region play. The Red Raiders will focus on the positive aspects of the latter number as they move on to the rest of region play.
“Right now we’re still undefeated in the region, and we’ve played two of the better teams,” Blair said. “Hopefully we can take some confidence into next week because we have two more region games."
McCallie is now 10-1-2 against a very tough schedule and has a 3-0-1 mark in Mid-East play, with league matches remaining against MBA and Pope John Paul II.
“I felt like we played well,” Cushenbery said. “We want to be better and we want to be sharper, but we’re a growth-mindset team. We welcome any opportunity to recognize ways we need to improve, and that’s what today is. We feel like we were good--we created more chances and we played the majority of the game in their end--but we didn’t finish. We just didn’t have that last touch, and we didn’t close down one shooter. But those are things we can come out Monday and get better at. We’re still in a very good situation.”
(E-mail Jaime Barrett at jaimenbarrett@gmail.com)