Monday delivered what has become a typical Flat Rock Middle-Polk County Middle boys soccer match – hard-fought, highly contested, a challenge to the last whistle.
That made the final result even more rewarding for the Wolverines as Polk Middle took over sole possession of second place in the Blue Ridge Conference’s East Division with a 1-0 victory at Utz Field.
The Wolverines (6-1) notched their second shutout of the season with a solid defensive effort, nearly matched by Flat Rock’s pressure-packed play against Polk Middle’s offense. The match unfolded much as Wolverine head coach Lennox Charles expected.
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“They’re going to be skillful. They’re going to be aggressive,” Charles said of Flat Rock. “And they were. We just never could keep the ball long enough to be effective. Every time someone got the ball, they sent two people. And the only way you handle that, it’s like dealing with a trap in basketball, you have to move the ball and then you have to move. And the slower you do it, the more effective the trap becomes.
“We kept getting pressured, and our instinct was to run out of trouble and then do something instead of pass the ball out of trouble. In the first half, we put some pressure on them. In the second half, we just could never get hold of the ball enough.”
Polk Middle produced the match’s lone goal as forward Brennan Oates tallied with just under four minutes remaining. Oates nearly added another strike, finding the net just seconds after the halftime buzzer sounded. Oates and Asher Brooks also worked a second-half combination that produced one of the few scoring opportunities in the final 30 minutes.
“That would have changed the game,” Charles said of the ending of the first half. “Because when they disallowed it, you could see their side getting excited. If that one had been three seconds earlier, then it’s a whole different game in the second half.
“We did a really good job. I’m proud of the guys. We had to fight, we really had to fight for this one. So, hey, take them any way you can get them. They’re all good.”
Polk Middle returns to Utz Field on Wednesday to host Brevard Middle for a 4:30 p.m. match.
