No. 8 Wolverines rout Mitchell, take sole possession of WHC’s top spot

Seven, once again, proved Polk County’s lucky number.

The eighth-ranked Wolverines scored seven times Wednesday night for the second straight game, doing so for a 7-0 rout of Mitchell in a Western Highlands Conference game at Wolverine Stadium.

Sammie Firby scored three goals, one of five different Polk County players to tally in the game that the Wolverines (5-0, 3-0) dominated from start to finish. But say this for Mitchell (0-4, 0-2) – the Mountaineers looked a much improved team from a year ago and went into halftime down just 3-0.

“They’re certainly better than they were the last four years,” said Polk County head coach Lennox Charles. “I warned the girls before the game that we needed to make sure we were prepared to play, to come out and be focused.

“We did a good job of winning a game that we were supposed to win.”

Firby scored twice in the first 20 minutes, both unassisted, before Addie Lynch took a pass from Elena Preston and chipped a shot over the Mitchell goalkeeper and into the net with 14:24 left in the first half, upping the lead to 3-0.

The score stayed that way until the break despite a flurry of shots from Polk County. But the Wolverines didn’t have to wait long in the second half for a goal, Firby taking a pass from Ashley Love and scoring from short range just over a minute into the final half.

Love then added her own goal less than two minutes later, tallying on a shot from the right side of the penalty area following a pass fron Emily Kocher. Alyssa Climer scored seven minutes later on a pass from Hanna O’Brien to up the margin to 6-0.

Senior Sarah Phipps capped the scoring with 7:16 remaining, assisted by Lynch.

Combined with Avery’s 7-0 loss to Hendersonville, the win moves Polk County into sole possession of first place in the WHC. The Wolverines travel to Avery on Monday before a pair of non-conference challenges at A.C. Reynolds and T.C. Roberson.

“We’re going to find out a lot about ourselves the next two weeks,” Charles said. “We’ve had a good first two weeks.”