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Polk County showed Wednesday that it can play with the best teams in the Mountain Foothills 7 Conference, battling Patton to a 1-1 tie in Morganton.

The Wolverines (11-4-3, 6-3-1) knocked the Panthers (15-3-3, 8-0-2) out of a first-place tie with Brevard with the result. Brevard and Patton still meet once more before the end of the regular season.

Patton grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first half, scoring off a corner kick. Video replay of the goal later appeared to show that the Panthers had 12 men on the field at the time of the kick, but officials ruled otherwise at the time, preserving the score.

Polk County finally evened the match in the waning minutes of regulation. Off a throw-in, Nate Martinez pushed down the middle of the field before passing to his left to Thomas Varnadore, who struck a shot toward the far post that Blake Anderson was able to drive home.

The Wolverines then kept the Panthers at bay in the two 10-minute overtime periods, with Charlie Wagoner making a handful of saves to preserve the deadlock.

Polk County will begin the final week of regular-season play on Monday, hosting East Rutherford.