Polk County Middle School’s boys soccer squad survived one of its biggest challenges of the season Wednesday. Now it’s on to an even bigger one.
The Wolverines held off Apple Valley, 2-1, in Blue Ridge Middle School Conference play at PCMS. Undefeated in its last eight games, a tie with Hendersonville Middle the only blemish in that span, the Wolverines (7-1-1) now face a return match with the Bearcats on Monday at Hendersonville in a game that could decide the conference’s Eastern Division title.
John Dougherty ripped a penalty kick into the back of the net with 23:03 left in Wednesday’s match to secure the win for Polk.
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“I thought we played much better than the first time against them (a 1-0 win),” said Polk Middle head coach Travis Aldred. “We hustled, we did everything we were supposed to do except win the 50-50 balls. They wanted those more than we did.
“I told them this was the biggest test of the second half of the season that we’ve had, and now with Hendersonville, we just have to go out and play like we can.”
Luis Hernandez also scored for Polk County, and goalkepper Wilson Edwards had several saves down the stretch as Polk repeatedly thwarted Apple Valley scoring attempts, often turning those into rushes onto the Apple Valley goal.
“We don’t try to hang back and play defense,” Aldred said. “We remain aggressive.
“We play as a team and we hustle. We outhustle our opponents.”
