So well was Polk County playing in the second half Wednesday night that head coach Lennox Charles hadn’t even bothered to look at the scoreboard clock.
Not, at least, until Hendersonville’s late goal meant time had all but run out on the Wolverines’ season.
Hendersonville got one good shot on goal in the second half Wednesday night and made it count. Rutledge Riddell bent a long shot from the right wing into the left corner of the net, the strike with 12 minutes remaining lifting the Bearcats to a 2-1 win over the Wolverines in their 2A third-round playoff match at Polk County Middle School.
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Knotted at 1-1 at halftime, Polk County (17-5-1) spent much of the first 25 minutes of the second half with possession in the Bearcats’ end of the field. But the Wolverines could never get the go-ahead score, and Riddell soon would.
With a flurry of traffic between himself and Polk County goalkeeper Wilson Edwards, Riddell used those bodies to his advantage, targeting his shot just inside the left post. Edwards couldn’t see the ball until it was well in flight, and the shot was so well-placed that it might not have mattered if he had.
“It took us a little while to adjust, but I felt like once we tied it up, we did a lot better,” Charles said. “I didn’t even realize how late it was because we had the ball in their half most of the first 25 minutes. They hadn’t gotten any chances. They finally get one shot, and Wilson couldn’t see it until it was too late.”
Having defeated Hendersonville in both regular-season meetings, Charles expected the Bearcats to throw something new at Polk for the rematch, and the Bearcats did just that. Hendersonville not only marked Wolverine leading scorer Wil Rimer with defender Alex Salveggio, but moved leading scorer Matthew Mel, with 30 goals this season, to the back to help defend Rimer. Wherever the Polk senior went on the field, Salveggio stayed within arm’s length and Mel hovered a few feet away. The strategy worked as Rimer never truly had a good scoring opportunity.
Aggressive from the start, Hendersonville (18-6) held the upper hand most of the first half and finally got a goal to show for it, Hunter Bickford pouncing on a loose ball in a scramble front of Edwards and tapping it into the net with 13:11 left in the first half. Polk County, largely quiet to that point, quickly responded as Jeremy Allsbrook took a direct free kick near the top of the penalty area and drove the ball low and into the left corner of the net, tying the match with 10:13 remaining in the half.
“They definitely had us on our heels for the first 20 or 25 minutes of the game,” Charles said. “We were on our heels the entire time. We finally recovered.
“I told the guys before the game that after we beat them both times during the season, they would try something different. They had a guy marking Wil wherever he was, and then Mel shadowed that guy. They said, Rimer is not going to beat us.”
At the half, Charles told Rimer to shift more toward one side of the field, hoping to draw Salveggio and Mel to that side and create chances on the other side of the field. Polk County did have some opportunities, but could never get the goal it needed.
“At times we dominated the game, but we couldn’t put one in the back of the net,” Charles said. “We just didn’t convert all of those possessions into chances.”
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