Two excellent soccer teams met Monday, April 25, in one of the area’s hottest sports rivalries.

The only downside is that one would score more than the other, and someone would leave disappointed.

When the match was over, Polk County had defeated Landrum, 3-1 and only after making a defensive adjustment to counter the Cardinals’ aggressive ball handling.

That match was held at Cardinal Stadium, Landrum.

Landrum is now 7-8-1 overall, and 5-1 in region play, the latter unchanged by the non-region match. Polk is now 12-3, and 8-1, respectively.

Each team scored single goals in the first half, with Landrum’s A.K. Hodge booting one in with about 20 minutes to play, and Caroline Lee scoring for the Wolverines, assisted by Ashley Love

With almost 15 minutes gone in the second half, Ashley Love scored for Polk on a feed by Reese Alley. Shortly after that, Lee scored unassisted, to end the scoring.

During the first half, Landrum coach Cathy Riordan used three players in the middle, to Polk’s two, forcing the Wolverines to work harder to keep the Cardinals from scoring.

In the second half, by shifting one player to the middle, Polk’s Coach Lennox Charles was able to help slow the Cardinals, and give his own team a better chance.

“I felt like we could probably score,” Charles said. “My concern was, could we stop them from being able to score? They were outplaying us all the time.”

That was Landrum’s last regular-season match. Results of Polk’s match at Owen on Wednesday, April 27 will be reported in a future edition.

Friday evening, the Wolverines visit Avery for varsity-only play, starting at 6 p.m. On Monday, May 2, Polk hosts Hendersonville. It’s the Wolverines’ Senior Night, with varsity play set for 7 p.m.