Five things to know as Polk County travels to Owen on Friday for the opening round of the NCHSAA 3A state football playoffs.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. in Black Mountain. No. 20 Polk County will face No. 13 Owen, with the winner advancing to the second round.
The matchup will be the second between the Western Highlands Conference rivals this season. Owen took a 46-27 victory on Sept. 18.
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Possessions mattered the first time: Polk County moved the football well enough to make the first meeting with Owen interesting.
Keeping possession of it was another matter.
The Wolverines committed five turnovers in the 46-27 loss – two fumbles and three interceptions – and also had a bad punt snap on their opening possession. Owen later recovered a kickoff immediately after a touchdown as well.
Those mistakes repeatedly gave the Warhorses either extra possessions or favorable field position. In all, 32 of Owen’s 46 points came on possessions following a Polk turnover, the bad punt snap or the recovered kickoff.
Polk still scored 27 points and produced more explosive plays than Owen, 10-8.
The rematch lesson seems fairly straightforward: The Wolverines showed they could create offense against Owen, but they made it far too difficult to stay in the game.
Their paths look remarkably similar: Take away the first meeting between Polk County and Owen, and the teams had identical results against the rest of the Western Highlands Conference.
Both defeated Madison and Avery.
Both lost to Mitchell, Mountain Heritage and Hendersonville.
That left each team 2-3 against those five common conference opponents, with Owen’s September victory over Polk accounting for the difference between the Warhorses’ 3-3 conference finish and Polk’s 2-4 mark.
Both teams also defeated Patton in nonconference play.
The first meeting certainly matters. But the rest of the season suggests two teams whose results against the same competition have looked very similar.
Blackwell is a different challenge now: Styler Blackwell was already productive when Polk County visited Owen in September, rushing for 126 yards on 16 carries.
He enters the rematch on an entirely different run.
Blackwell rushed for 218 yards and three touchdowns against Madison, followed with a career-high 261 yards and three scores at Avery and added 171 yards and two touchdowns against unbeaten Hendersonville.
That’s 650 rushing yards and eight touchdowns over Polk’s final three regular-season games, an average of almost 217 yards per game.
Blackwell enters the playoffs with 1,384 rushing yards for the season.
Owen contained him well enough to win the first meeting. Doing so again figures to be one of the central challenges of Friday’s rematch.
Strength in numbers: Trying to identify one Owen runner to stop won’t make much sense.
Eight Warhorses have recorded at least 20 carries this season as Owen has rushed 455 times for 2,683 yards and 34 touchdowns.
Senior Stephen Anderson leads the team with 680 yards and 11 touchdowns on 105 carries, with quarterback Emmett Minks just behind at 671 yards and seven scores on 114 attempts.
That depth was evident in the first meeting. Nine Owen players had rushing attempts as the Warhorses finished with 208 yards on the ground.
Minks also gives Owen another option through the air, completing 51-of-101 passes for 766 yards and 10 touchdowns with five interceptions.
His primary target has been junior LaSalle Jones, who has 23 receptions for 480 yards and eight touchdowns. Jones burned Polk for a 60-yard touchdown in the September meeting and has continued to emerge as Owen’s primary big-play threat.
Don’t forget the return game: One of the most damaging moments for Polk in the first meeting didn’t come on offense or defense.
Owen recovered a short kickoff immediately after scoring to open the second half and quickly turned the extra possession into another touchdown, helping extend an 18-6 halftime lead to 32-6.
Special teams remain an area where the Warhorses can create problems.
Owen averaged 27.4 yards per kickoff return during the regular season. Junior Nathaniel Rollins has handled most of that work, returning 15 kicks for 437 yards – an average of 29.1 yards per return.
Rollins also recovered the short kickoff against Polk in September.
In a postseason game between two teams that have produced remarkably similar results against common opponents, hidden yards and extra possessions could matter even more.
Polk learned that lesson the hard way in the first meeting.
