Most high school soccer teams reached the ends of their seasons much earlier than did Polk County High School’s women’s squad.
The Wolverines won their first two games in the state tournament before third-ranked Newton Conover edged them, 1-0, on Wednesday evening, at Newton Conover. Going into the game, Polk was ranked 11th in the state among AA schools.
The Wolverines, under Coach Lennox Charles, were 17-5-1 in the regular season, finishing 19-6-1 overall.
On Wednesday, Newton Conover captured the early momentum with the game’s only goal about seven minutes into the contest. Charles noted that NC’s forward used her great speed to get behind some of the Polk players and put the ball into the net.
“They (Newton Conover) did a really good job early on,” admitted Charles. It took us fifteen or twenty minutes to get it figured out. By then, it was 1-0.” Charles also explained that Newton Conover’s coach was able to watch Polk’s entire game against Wilkes Central last Saturday, and then had the Red Devils line up differently than they had all season. Polk’s staff was unable to watch the Red Devils play last Friday.
Charles noted that after Newton Conover scored, “we adjusted.” And, Wolverine goalkeeper Kara Overhold made another outstanding save, to keep Polk close.
In the second half, said Charles, “we did a really good job” on the Red Devils’ speedy forward. “She never got behind us. In the last fifteen minutes of the first half, Charles added, “We clearly had the better of the game,” including two good scoring opportunities from about six yards out. But, Polk couldn’t capitalize at least in part because “they had a really solid goalkeeper, maybe the best we’ve faced.”
Through the game, Charles noted that his team “worked hard, as usual. Early on, we lost our composure. It took a while to settle down and get our confidence back.” So much did the Wolverines regain their confidence that they controlled the ball for the first fifteen minutes of the second half.