COLUMBIA --- Paul Waters didn't need 20 games to understand how his South Aiken boys soccer team becomes motivated.

The best way to push the Thoroughbreds, the coach said, is to provoke them into believing they won't win.

Late in the Class AAA championship game against Eastside-Greenville, South Aiken was more than provoked; it was on the brink of blowing a title chance. Playing with a man advantage after an Eastside player was shown a red card, South Aiken trailed by a goal about two minutes into the first of two 10-minute overtime periods.

The Thoroughbreds responded before the Eastside fans could sit back down.

Brett Van Pelt's rebound goal 44 seconds after Eastside's score represented the biggest moment of South Aiken's 2-1 victory Saturday night at Memorial Stadium. Allen Grier's cross, headed into the goal by an Eastside defender at 3:50 of the first overtime, proved to be the winning goal in a meeting of teams who both won state titles in 2005 (South Aiken was in Class AAAA).

"What a game," Waters said. "That ... was a state title game."

Waters' message had spread to his players after the game. Draped in championship medals, they accepted hugs from supporters and talked about what ignited their rally.

"Our team likes to wait and step it up when it really needs to," senior goalkeeper Chad Christensen said. "That goal woke us up."

"We always seem to wait for something to get us going, giving up a goal, for example," said senior defender Michael Poole.

South Aiken, whose only loss was to Airport in penalty kicks, finished its season 20-1 without a regulation loss. It had shut out its previous six opponents before the final.

Eastside posed a significant threat, even though it was playing without all-state forward Miguel Teos, who was serving a red-card suspension after being ejected from the team's 3-2 Upper State title victory over J.L. Mann.

His absence became amplified about midway through the second half. That's when Eastside defender Carlos Berrio was ejected for an incident with South Aiken senior Chris Blanton.

Blanton, who was issued a yellow card on the play, said he climbed on Berrio's back, then was slung to the ground when Berrio flung his right arm into Blanton. Eastside coach Scott Halkett declined to comment on the incident, because he said he didn't see it.

Even though the Thoroughbreds would end up playing the final 38:48 a man up on the Eagles, for a while it seemed that wouldn't be enough. Eastside fired an open shot from six yards out right at Christensen with a minute to go in regulation. Then it scored first in overtime, which only served to motivate South Aiken.

"When we went a goal up, it's almost like they had to push people forward," Halkett said. "It became a numbers game at that point. ... We had enough opportunities to win the game earlier."