Moises Drumond shouted from the sideline.
The Soddy-Daisy soccer coach wanted to run as much time off the clock in the final moments and keep possession for as long as possible so East Hamilton couldn't earn a quick-strike goal and tie the game.
Not everybody listened.
But the end-of-game strategy worked and the Lady Trojans remained undefeated in District 5-AAA competition with a 2-1 win over the host Lady Hurricanes.
"At the start of the week, us, East Hamilton and Walker Valley all had the chance to win the district," Drumond said. "So it was very important to get this win."
The Lady Trojans improved to 7-1-1 overall and 5-0 in the district, while East Hamilton dropped to 2-6 and 2-2. Soddy-Daisy faces Walker Valley on Thursday, then plays in a tournament Friday and Saturday.
"It was also important to win in regulation and not go into overtime or PKs," Drumond said. "I'm glad the girls responded after giving up that goal."
East Hamilton scored first when Camryn Harris blasted a long shot into an empty net. Soddy-Daisy goalkeeper Bailey Coyner misplayed a ball from the right side of her box, leaving the net wide open with 25 minutes left in the first half.
"That's the first mistake she's made all year," Drumond said. "We like to play the ball back to her, and we'll keep doing that. She played well the rest of the way."
Soddy-Daisy evened the score with eight minutes left before halftime. Alyssa Scarpelli, from the top left of the box, delivered a perfect pass to Rachel Rasmussen near the far post, and Rasmussen converted on her clear shot.
"I was in the right place at the right time and able to finish," said Rasmussen, one of 12 upperclassmen on the Soddy-Daisy roster.
Fellow junior Anna Lanter put the Lady Trojans ahead by one with 12 minutes left to play. She beat the East Hamilton keeper by a hair to a ball passed ahead by Soni Whalen. With one touch Lanter prevented the keeper from snatching the ball on a dive and shook the back net with her shot.
"That puts us undefeated with Walker Valley," Lanter said. "Hopefully it will be a good game on Thursday."
The Lady Hurricanes are off Thursday, leaving plenty of time for practice the rest of this week.
"There were patches of really good soccer," East Hamilton coach Carrie Hill said. "What got us were some mental errors, and Soddy-Daisy is good enough to make us pay for those."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.