Nursing a groin injury, Sofie Abrahamsen had a plan for how she would spend Friday evening.
Parked on the home bench in G.M. Tennant Stadium, cheering her Polk County teammates as they battled Asheville.
But with starting goalkeeper Cate Brown sidelined by an injury, Abrahamsen asked for the gloves – and delivered, helping the Wolverines upend Asheville 2-1 in a matchup of two of the area’s top teams.
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Charley Dusenbury’s header in the 62nd minute proved the game-winner, but only because of Abrahamsen’s play in the final minutes. She stopped a handful of Asheville attacks down the stretch, including going to her knees to corral a blast from Evie McLean with 3:45 remaining after McLean had worked free on the right flank.
“I was probably 80, 85 percent,” Abrahamsen said. “A lot of the time, when I would dive and go on the ground, I had to grimace and just get back up. Can’t let coaches know, I gotta stay in.
“I feel like the adrenaline kept me going, because I was like, we cannot lose this. We came out, we knew it was going to be hard and I really wanted to win. I was going to do anything just to get that.”
A great individual play put Polk County (11-2-4) up 1-0 just 72 seconds into the second half. Freshman Kenley Savaia deflected an Asheville defender’s pass near midfield, then raced past the Cougar back line to corral the loose ball. She took a couple of touches and drove deep into the penalty area before deftly slipping a shot inside the far post to put the Wolverines up 1-0.
The margin remained there until the 62nd minute. Taking a throw-in from the right sideline, Reeve Carroll delivered her trademark somersault throw, sending a long toss inside the 6-yard box. The throw found Dusenbury, who flicked it over a group of Asheville defenders and into the net for a 2-0 lead.
Polk County head coach Lennox Charles welcomed both goals as much for what they represented as their impact on the game.
“Kenley created her own goal just by working and hustling. Forced a mistake, went in and scored,” Charles said. “We’ve been working on those (throws) with Charlie. She’s been close a couple of times, she was close Wednesday, and she got one today, one that we needed badly based on the end of the game.
“We had some performances that were really good. We did change our formation and played with one forward because we felt like we were going to need them across the middle of the field, having that extra person. We only had one day, but they did an unbelievable job of trying to execute what we asked.”
Asheville (11-3) cut the lead in half with 11 minutes remaining on Sarah Hambright’s free kick from just above the top of the penalty area. The Cougars then pressed hard for the equalizer, but Abrahamsen blunted every charge. She finished the evening with 16 saves.
“My heart was pretty much beating out of my chest,” she said. “It was honestly insane. I was just trying to do everything I could. The last couple of punts, I was trying to get them as far as I possibly could.”
“This is what you need,” Charles said. “You need people to step up, and she did.”
