By Mark Schmerling

A much-improved Polk County High School varsity soccer team won twice as many games as the Wolverines last season and tied for second in the Western Highlands Conference, but ended the season with a 3-1 loss to Lexington Wednesday (Oct. 29) in the first round of the state AA tournament.

The Wolverines finished the regular season at 12-5-2 overall, and 9-3 in the conference, tying Hendersonville for second. Owen won the WHC title, going 11-1 in conference competition.

Though Polk played well into a brisk wind during the second half of the Lexington match, the Wolverines couldn’t penetrate the Yellowjackets’ goal. Polk had taken a 1-0 lead in the first half, but couldn’t hold the momentum after Lexington tied the contest. “The one thing in soccer that gives a team a clear advantage when you have it, is the wind,” remarked Wolverines’ coach Lennox Charles.

“We had a better chance than they did when we had the wind,” Charles continued. He added that earlier in the game, “Maybe I could have gotten them (Polk players) to do a little more passing.” Charles noted that Wolverine players got off to an aggressive start moving the ball downfield, not necessarily a bad thing.

In the second half, Charles noted, the Wolverines played better into the wind, though, “we created a couple of good (scoring) chances near the end, we didn’t put it into the goal.” After the Wolverines took the early lead, they weren’t able to hold their momentum. “Their (Lexington’s) confidence improved after that (the Yellowjackets’ first goal),” Charles observed. “We couldn’t put them away.”

After one half, the score stood at 1-1. However, with 21:50 left in the second half, Lexington scored on a shot into the right-hand corner of Polk’s goal. Then, with just 1:25 left in the game, officials called time to decide whether a Yellowjacket kick actually crossed the line into the Wolverine’s goal. When they ruled that it did, their announcement was met with shouts of disapproval from the Polk bleachers, but the score held at 3-1.