The Baylor girls' soccer team started its state-title defense with a 2-0 home win over Ensworth on a rainy Tuesday night in the first round of the Division II-AA playoffs.
The shutout avenged a 3-1 loss to the visiting Lady Tigers earlier in the season, which ended the Lady Red Raiders' 25-game unbeaten streak that started Oct. 25, 2016. Baylor will move on to face Briarcrest on Saturday in Memphis.
"Any time you lose at home, it's painful," Baylor coach Curtis Blair said of the earlier defeat. "I thought we came out and played some really good soccer today. I'm extremely proud of these girls. They've worked hard, and we had our best training sessions last week. They're focused and ready to move onto the next step."
The teams played to a halftime draw, with neither seeming to take an edge into the second half. That changed with 10 minutes played in the second period as Baylor (13-4-2) took command of possession and started creating dangerous opportunities.
The Lady Red Raiders started firing crosses into the box but couldn't find a strong shot on the other end. Their best opportunity came when Maddie Reap got a rebound from her own free kick and lobbed a shot that hit the bottom of the crossbar and stayed out.
"In the second half, we really started to move the ball from left to right and started opening up some gaps we could play into," Blair said. "We knew it was going to come because we had the ball and we were creating chances. It was a matter of when.
"At this stage, when you can get put out or move on, you have that urge of 'OK, when's it going to come?' Soccer can be a mean game where you have the possession and the shots but they put one in and all of a sudden you lose 1-0."
Baylor got a sigh of relief with 25:56 to go in the game on a corner kick from Reap. Ara Rhodes crashed on the right side to meet the long pass and bump it in goal from close range.
"I thought we matched up well for most of the game, but there was a five-minute stretch that determined the game," Ensworth coach Danny Wright said. "Defending corner kicks has been a challenge for us, and we've worked on it all season. Regardless, we have to score. It was a fun game, and it's always fun to play them."
The end of the decisive stretch came at the 23:56 mark as Avery Davis took a pass at the top of the box and darted toward the goal. She was tripped up and awarded a penalty kick. Davis hopped up off the dampened grass to calmly double her team's lead from the spot.
For Ensworth (8-7-1), its best opportunity came before Baylor's first goal on a counterattack after Reap struck the crossbar. The Lady Red Raiders had not reset themselves defensively, creating lanes for the Tigers to attack. Baylor was able to avert the danger and neutralize counters the rest of the half to maintain the clean sheet.
Contact Idris Garcia at sports@timesfreepress.com.