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Thomas Varnadore healed quickly and saved Polk County in the process.

With time ticking away in the second overtime of Monday’s home match with R-S Central, Varnadore drew a hard foul on the Hilltoppers’ side of the field. He slowly got to his feet, doing so quickly enough to avoid being sent off, and made his way toward the goal to await the ensuing free kick.

Nate Martinez lofted that kick just in front of the net, where R-S Central’s goalkeeper batted it down to a waiting Varnadore. He quickly stuffed the rebound into the left side of the net to lift the Wolverines to a 3-2 Mountain Foothills 7 Conference win.

The Hilltoppers (4-9-1, 0-7) had already played twice since returning from a break of almost two weeks in the wake of Hurricane Helene’s destructive path through Western North Carolina, and perhaps that helped R-S push Polk County (9-2-2, 4-1) to the limit for all 100 minutes.

The Wolverines did score first, with a bit of fancy footwork from Manny Abraham leading to that tally in the 20th minute. Abraham raced down the left side for a long pass, reaching the ball deep in the corner at the Hilltoppers’ end of the field. He feinted and dribbled around a defender, driving within a few feet of the goal before striking a perfect cross to Nate Martinez, who tapped the ball at the back post to give Polk a 1-0 advantage.

R-S Central responded six minutes later, evening the match, and it remained deadlocked throughout the rest of the first half and all of the second, sending the teams tied at 1-1 into two 10-minute overtime periods.

Polk struck first in the initial extra session, with Martinez driving a corner kick near the back post, where Varnadore awaited unguarded. His header slipped just inside the far post to put the Wolverines up 2-1.

The Hilltoppers, though, struck in the first minute of the second overtime session to even the match, and for a time, it appeared that Polk might have its first match of the season to be decided by penalty kicks. Varnadore’s strike with 3:06 remaining prevented that.

Polk County will be back in action on Friday, hosting Brevard, with junior varsity action starting at 5 p.m. and varsity following at 6:45 p.m.