Baylor's Jackson Campbell (25) jumps to avoid McCallie's Drew Viscomi (19) in first half action Friday at McCallie.McCallie spent most of Friday's TSSAA Division II-AA East/Middle soccer match chasing Baylor, which had scored an early goal. The Blue Tornado eventually caught up with the Red Raiders before time ran out, but equal is all they could get.
Although the shots weighed heavily in their favor, the Blue Tornado could only salvage a 1-1 final score against their archrival at McCallie.
McCallie (10-1-2) remains unbeaten in the region standings at 3-0-1. Baylor (2-6-4) does, too, at 0-0-2 with Montgomery Bell Academy being the other league opponent the Red Raiders have played.
Baylor's Florian Kirschenbauer got free in front of the goal midway through the first half and fired a kick directly into the center of the net for a 1-0 lead. Sam Stewart was credited for setting it up.
"One thing we've struggled with is scoring goals," Baylor coach Curtis Blair said. "All of a sudden we scored early. A goal gives you confidence, and you try and build off that."
The Red Raiders withstood multiple scoring chances by the Tornado, many of their own doing. For instance, McCallie attempted 13 corner kicks. Baylor was awarded three, and two of those were within the first three minutes of the match.
McCallie also had a decided edge in free kicks. Finally, in the 73rd minute, recent Northwestern commitment Drew Viscomi converted one from right of the goal that glanced off the right upright and caromed in.
"They didn't really create that much offense in the flow of play," Blair said. "We gave them too many fouls and corner kicks. That's eventually going to catch up with you. Drew made a great shot. There's nothing you can do about that one."
McCallie entered as the top-ranked team in the state and the No. 6 team in the CBS/MaxPreps national rankings despite not having a senior starter. The Tornado ended up with an 18-8 edge in shots, although not many proved to be great scoring chances.
"It wasn't like we had five breakaways,"McCallie coach Chris Cushenbery said. "We try to get a volume of opportunities and hope the numbers stack out. Sometimes it doesn't. That's the way it played out today.
"Kudos to them for hanging on. I'm proud of our guys for battling back. I don't think we ever felt like we weren't going to get a goal. Honestly I felt like we played pretty well. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. I may be the person who misperceived the game. We created many more chances. We played the majority on their end. We just didn't close down on one shooter."
Even after Viscomi's 23rd goal of the season, McCallie had two free-kick opportunities within the final two minutes.
"We wish the game would've lasted 15 more minutes," Cushenbery said. "We just felt like were going to get that second one."
Blair praised his keeper, Cannon Kelly, who had been sick recently but managed to stop five McCallie shots.
Emerson Brock made four saves for the Blue Tornado.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.