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Polk County’s draw with Hendersonville on Thursday evening didn’t lack for drama.

Or excitement. Or wild momentum swings. Or much of anything else, really.

“You talk about events having everything?” said Polk County head coach Lennox Charles. “Whew. That about had everything.”

At night’s end, the Wolverines and Bearcats settled for a 4-4 draw, each team scoring once in overtime after a 3-3 statemate at the end of regulation play. It marked quite an improvement for Polk County from the teams’ first encounter, when Hendersonville claimed a 4-0 win, and it kept the Wolverines’ hopes alive for a second-place finish in the Mountain Foothills 7 Conference if Polk can win out and Hendersonville loses once before season’s end.

So there was much to celebrate for Polk (9-2-1, 6-2-1), even if that joy came tinged with a bit of regret after seeing an early 3-0 lead evaporate and also watching the Bearcats (10-2-2, 6-1-1) earn the draw after the Wolverines scored first in overtime.

“It’s always little things,” Charles said. “We had that little lapse there to start the second overtime. And we had a couple of calls. . .

“But, I’m really happy with the difference between Thursday (a 4-2 loss to Brevard) and today, the response to adversity while playing a good team. I really hate it for them because I thought we played well enough to get this game and we handled all the adversity thrown at us. It’s not as much progress as we wanted, but it’s not a loss.”

Much like last week’s setback against Brevard, Polk County quickly gained the upper hand in Thursday’s affair, scoring three times in the first seven minutes of the match.

The flurry began 99 seconds into play as Reeve Carroll dribbled deep into the left corner before striking a perfect cross to Hayden Blackwell, who redirected the pass into the net for a quick and seemingly easy 1-0 advantage.

Carroll made it 2-0 three minutes later, finding open space in the middle to receive a pass from Charley Dusenbury, then dribbling past a defender and driving in for a point-blank shot on Hendersonville goalkeeper Eleanor Pavao. Carroll’s drive glanced off Pavao’s leg and into the net.

Carroll then returned the favor, driving a free kick in the seventh minute from deep on the right wing to the far post, where Dusenbury streaked in behind the Hendersonville defense and flicked in a header to give the Wolverines a stunning 3-0 margin.

Hendersonville, though, began to regain its composure and use its speed to put pressure on the Polk defense. That paid off in the 31st minute as the Bearcats ran a quick corner kick and scored on a Stella Veach goal, making it a 3-1 game at intermission.

Mia Nitsche struck in the opening minutes of the second half before Veach tied the game in the 59th minute. The Bearcats continued to press, but Polk goalkeeper Cate Brown turned aside numerous shots in the final 20 minutes to preserve the tie and force overtime.

“(Brown) had one of her most consistent games,” Charles said. “In terms of reading balls coming through, I thought she did a lot better job today than she’s done recently. The last few games she’s had some 50-50 things at the top of the box, but now she’s just scooping everything up.”

Polk grabbed a 4-3 advantage in the final minute of the first overtime period. Dusenbury played a free kick off the left wing deep into the right side of the box, where Carroll won a footrace to the bouncing ball and headed it over a charging Papao. She then raced to the ball and, while turning toward the net, chipped a drive that evaded a defender and rolled into the left side of the goal.

But Hendersonville quickly answered in the first minute of the second overtime. Aurelia Retzbach gained possession in the center of the field and slid to her left around a Polk defender to gain an open look at the net. She ripped a left-footed drive from near the top of the penalty area that bent away from Brown and just inside the far post, equalizing the match.

Neither team would score again, the match ending with Carroll taking a long free kick that Papao caught just as the final whistle sounded.

Polk County was set to hit the road Friday for a non-conference clash against a 7-3-1 Murphy squad.