Polk County head coach Bruce Ollis made sure to remind his team that Saturday nights Border Showcase Football Classic loss to nationally ranked Byrnes was only a mid-August preseason test.

The real season, he said, begins this Friday night at Tuscola.

We wont see another team better than this one all season, Ollis said.

Byrnes, ranked No. 25 in the country by USA Today, dominated PCHS 34-7.

The Class 4-A Rebels got three touchdowns from Shakeem Wharton. Quarterbacks Zach Blair and Colton Korn also threw for a touchdown each.

The Wolverines, who played without starting quarterback Andre Overholt, never found consistency on offense and were unable to match Byrnes team speed on defense. Overholt is nursing an ankle injury and has not played in either of the teams preseason events.

Ryan Thomas provided an early highlight for the Wolverines when he intercepted a Blair pass on the first play from scrimmage. Thomas was chosen as the Wolveines MVP for the game.

PCHS got on the scoreboard with about seven minutes to play on a 42-yard sprint by quarterback Cody Orick, who burst through the middle on second-and-inches.

Ollis said he was happy with the way his team performed in Thursday nights round-robin format Wolverine Jamboree with Asheville, Pisgah and East Rutherford.

We challenged our guys up front and told them we wanted to run the football, and we were able to do that against some good defensive football teams, said Ollis.