Polk County Middle did not feel Wednesday like celebrating.
Not that the Wolverines didn’t have ample reasons to be excited in the wake of their 36-20 victory over Canton Middle at Utz Field – a fourth straight victory to end the season, snapping a three-game losing streak against the Bears, and earning a playoff triumph to cap the turnaround.
But after two Canton Middle players were injured in separate fourth-quarter incidents, each leading to an ambulance being called onto the field to take away the players, the evening’s festive mood turned somber. Hugs even mingled with the traditional postgame handshakes.
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“I’ve been for eight years, and maybe I’ve seen one kid get on an ambulance,” said Polk Middle head coach Ethan Edwards. “It just doesn’t usually happen, and we have two within 10 minutes here.
“That shook my guys up, which is a good thing, because it makes me know they care about the team we’re playing against. They’re all kids out here.”
Before the injuries changed the complexion of the evening, Polk Middle (4-3) had taken charge of the game after a wild first quarter. The teams combined for a defensive touchdown, two long passing touchdowns, a successful onside kick and five total scores in an opening six minutes that ended with the Wolverines up 20-14.
Polk had the only score of the second quarter – a 75-yard touchdown pass from Hollis Williams to Kayden Pressley, with Williams perfectly hitting Pressley in stride on the deep post route – and then delivered a goal-line stand in the waning seconds, stopping Canton at the 1 as the half ended to take a 28-14 advantage into intermission.
Williams then opened the third quarter with a spectacular interception, leaping high to his right to catch a Canton pass. That led to a 10-play, 65-yard Polk drive that ended with a Williams flaring a short pass into the flat on a 4th-and-6 to Pressley, who made two charging defenders miss and raced to the end zone to complete the 18-yard score on the opening play of the fourth quarter. That gave Polk a 36-14 lead and effectively ended Canton’s hopes of a comeback.
“This Canton team is much improved from when we played them the first time,” Edwards said. “They beat us by two there, and that was the third time in a row that they had beaten us by two. So that was a point of emphasis – we can’t let this team keep beatng us. And they’re beating us in close games that we have a chance to win and we’re doing things to prevent ourselves from winning.”
Just as in last week’s win over Hendersonville Middle, Polk returned a game-opening onside kick into its end of the field and scored on its first play. Again, Williams delivered the score, racing 25 yards around left end to the end zone to put the Wolverines up 6-0.
Canton answered with a touchdown to even the game, then forced a fumble on Polk’s second play for a scoop and score, adding the 2-point conversion to grab a 14-6 advantage.
Williams answered with a 51-yard scoring run up the middle through the heart of the Bear defense, and Pressley recovered Polk’s ensuing onside kick. That led to Williams finding RJ Simpson across the middle for a 45-yard touchdown pass, Simpson snaring the pass in traffic and outracing a pair of defenders to the end zone. The score, with 1:26 left in the quarter, gave the Wolverines a 20-14 edge.
Williams finished the day 6-of-8 passing for 163 yards and three touchdowns in addition to rushing for 90-plus yards and two scores and delivering his interception. But the day was very much about the entire Polk Middle team, the Wolverines responding to an 0-3 start to the season with a remarkable turnaround that produced the season-ending four-game winning streak.
“Everybody, including some of them, thought, we won one game last year, we may not win one game this year,” Edwards said. “But the core group was starting to click, and they were trying to motivate one another. There was never any fighting in the locker room like you’ll see sometimes when you’re 0-3.
“Our chemistry was a big part of turning this around. We don’t have many vocal leaders, but guys like Hollis and Andy (Serrano) and RJ and Riley (Morgan) and Hudson (Hyde), if you’re screwing up in practice, they’ll let you know, hey, that’s not what we’re supposed to be doing. Or you can watch thosekids bust their tails when they’re already better than everyone else.
“I give them a lot of credit for that. You can’t coach that. Attitude wise, the ones you would call our star players, at 0-3 they still thought that we’re good football team. We’re going to win games, which I think is an admirable trait. So I’m just proud of all of them and they way they played.”
