Two fine high school soccer teams will meet at Newton Conover High School on Wednesday evening in the third round of state tournament action. One of those will be Polk County, after the Wolverines topped Shelby 2-0 in the second round on Saturday.
On Saturday, neither team scored in the first 24 minutes, but then Megan Clements booted in her first of two goals on the evening. Then “(Polk goalkeeper) Kara (Overholt) made a huge save one minute after to keep the score 1-0,” said Wolverines’ coach Lennox Charles.
If she had not blocked the shot, Charles continued, “that would have changed the whole game, given them (Shelby) the momentum.”
With about five and one half minutes left in the game, Polk’s Lyric Flood fired a net-bound free kick that Shelby’s goalkeeper stopped, but bobbled. The ball fell away just far enough for Clements who followed up by ramming it into the box to give Polk a more secure lead.
As an AA team, Polk has reached the third round of the state tournament several times earlier, but since the Wolverines have competed at A/AA they’ve not made it to the fourth.
Game time Saturday is 6:30 p.m. Newton Conover is between Hickory and Statesville. Polk is now ranked eleventh in the state, while Newton Conover is third.
Charles told his players that Newton Conover has lost just three games this season. “You get to this point, everybody is good and solid. They are beatable if we play well.” If that happens, “we have a very good chance of coming out of this game.”
Polk has a solid nucleus of players who have shared at least two seasons on the field, and who have advanced to third-round competition two or three times depending on their respective varsity experience.
At this point, Charles noted, “It’s all about preparation.” Though the Wolverines are familiar with Newton Conover’s regular game, “we have to be mentally prepared to see something different. There’s going to be no overconfidence or taking anybody lightly at this point.”