It was a moment for which Polk County waited a year and worked toward for almost as long.
A victory, Friday’s 34-32 season-opening win over Chase, ending a span of 364 days since the last one. Sealed with a determined and gritty finish, seven minutes of grind-it-out football in the muck and mud of W.J. Miller Field.
Just like the Wolverines drew it up.
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“This is the epitome of what we did all summer,” said Polk County head coach Dustin Fry. “Everything was built on finishing in the fourth quarter. Everything we did was about finishing games, because we were so tired of being a first-half team and just giving it away at the end.
“I’m just so happy for those guys to get to experience success and get to see their hard work pay off. They’ve done nothing but show up and work, and it’s just on them. Man, I love that team so much.”
You couldn’t toss a clump of sod at the Polk sideline without hitting someone who made a key contribution. On a night when cramps accompanied nearly every play in the second half, Polk County needed contributions from likely and unlikely sources. The Wolverines got them.
But perhaps no one added more to the effort than senior Loreyzno Sanchez, who juked and spun and sprinted for 390 all-purpose yards. He ran for 233 yards on 24 carries, including an 89-yard burst for a score. He caught five passes for 75 yards. And just before the end of the first half, he talked Fry into letting him slip onto the field with the Polk special teams, promising to take back the kickoff that followed Chase’s go-ahead score with 43 seconds left in the second quarter. Fry agreed, and Sanchez held up his end, returning the kick 82 yards to give Polk County a 19-18 lead at the break.
“That wasn’t me as a coach,” Fry said. “That was him saying, Coach, put me back there. I’m going to return it. And, sure enough, there he goes.
“Number four, you just can’t say enough about him. He’s one of the best players I’ve ever coached in my life.”
The first quarter featured one score, that Darin Tipton’s 13-yard pass to Kaiden Boyce to cap a 15-play, 85-yard scoring drive and give Chase a 6-0 advantage. That drive wasn’t without controversy – Polk stopped the Trojans on a fourth-and-1 at the Wolverine 47, only to see officials spot the ball and give Chase another try. Postgame film review confirmed that the Trojans received an extra play, and they made the most of it, scoring with 4:04 left in the quarter.
That gaffe was soon forgotten in the frenzy of second and third quarters that saw the teams score nine combined touchdowns.
Polk got on the board for the first time on Brody Wilkins’ 28-yard touchdown toss to Styler Blackwell, who broke three tackles en route to the end zone. Chase answered later in the period with Tipton’s 88-yard scoring bomb to Trajan Littlejohn, but back came Polk, with Wilkins lofting a pass over the middle that a Chase defender nearly intercepted, but instead tipped to Blackwell, who raced to the end zone to complete the 67-yard scoring play.
Chase regained the lead with 43 seconds left in the half, capitalizing on a Polk fumble. Sanchez erased that advantge with his kick return, sending the Wolverines into the locker room up one.
The Wolverines notched a crucial stop to open the second half, but were then stuck deep in their territory and faced a third-and-2 at the 11. Sanchez took the third-down handoff and burst through the middle of the Chase defense, finding open space and outrunning two defenders to the end zone. He then added the 2-point conversion to put Polk up 27-18.
Chase responded with a Tipton 12-yard touchdown pass to Boyce to make it 27-24. Polk answered with a 62-yard scoring drive begun with five straight carries by Sanchez and ended with Wilkins’ 4-yard scoring toss to Nolan Simpson. Blake Anderson drilled his second extra point of the night to make it 34-24 with 3:46 left in the third.
The Trojans added their final score with 1:41 left in the third on Jontae Wingo’s 1-yard run. Chase would only touch the ball once more in the remaining quarter-plus, that a possession that reached the Polk 31 before Acer Eadus’ near-strip of Tipton left the Trojans facing fourth-and-16. They wouldn’t convert, and they wouldn’t get the ball back as Polk ran 13 plays before the final whistle sounded.
Wilkins finished 12-of-17 for 205 yards and three touchdowns. Blackwell caught five passes for 122 yards and two scores. Freshman Riley Morgan looked sharp on his five carries.
Polk needed it all to end a year of frustration, and that they did with a final possession few will ever forget.
“You dream about drives like that, where you can just run the ball to finish it,” Fry said. “Just pick up big plays and execute. As a coach, it gets no better than that.
“We were piecemealing guys in there. Just doing a lot of differnt stuff with guys. But I think they see it now, and they see what the hard work does, and it’s hopefully up from here.”
C — 6 12 14 0 — 32
PC — 0 19 15 0 — 34
FIRST QUARTER
C – Kaiden Boyce 13 pass from Darin Tipton (pass failed), 4:04
SECOND QUARTER
PC – Styler Blackwell 28 pass from Brody Wilkins (Blake Anderson kick), 10:04
C – Trajan Littlejohn 88 pass from Tipton (run failed), 4:50
PC – Blackwell 67 pass from Wilkins (pass failed), 4:33
C – Boyce 1 run (pass failed), :43
PC – Loreynzo Sanchez 82 kickoff return (kick failed), :29
THIRD QUARTER
PC – Sanchez 89 run (Sanchez run), 7:52
C – Boyce 12 pass from Tipton (pass failed), 6:51
PC – Nolan Simpson 4 pass from Wilkins (Anderson kick), 3:46
C – Jontae Wingo 1 run (Littlejohn pass from Tipton), 1:41
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
C – Jontae Wingo 17-55, Kaiden Boyce 2-2, Darin Tipton 8-(-18). PC – Loreynzo Sanchez 24-233, Riley Morgan 5-16, Brody Wilkins 2-9, Team 2-(-11).
PASSING
C – Darin Tipton 22-37-0-379. PC – Brody Wilkins 12-17-0-205.
RECEIVING
C – Trajan Littlejohn 4-141, Jason Hardin 9-115, Tyrell Johnson 5-79, Kaiden Boyce 3-35, Jontae Wingo 1-9. PC – Styler Blackwell 5-122, Loreynzo Sanchez 5-75, Nolan Simpson 1-4, Keyan Simpson 1-4.
