Fresh off last week’s dominating win over Madison, Polk County will take their perfect conference record on the road this evening, heading up the mountain to Yancey County for a showdown with the Cougars of Mountain Heritage High School.
Although the Cougars were shut out 27-0 in their conference opener at Hendersonville last week, Polk head coach Bruce Ollis is quick to note that a road trip to Burnsville is rarely a cakewalk.
“All conference games are huge, but the Mountain Heritage game seems to have morphed into something bigger,” said Polk head coach Bruce Ollis.  “We feel like we should be in the hunt for a conference title most seasons, and Coach Robinson has their program where they are a force to be reckoned with in the WHC every year.”
The Wolverines and Cougars have shared the last two Western Highlands Conference titles.
Mountain Heritage runs a Wing-T attack out of the shotgun, an offense that can be very deceptive because of all the faking and misdirection.
Even though the Cougars are primarily a ground-based team, with a 3-1 run to pass ratio, Ollis notes that the effectiveness of their run game sets up the potential for home run passes off play action.
“They run a multitude of formations offensively, so we have put in a lot of preparation time on defense as a result,” said Ollis.
The Cougars will be led by middle linebacker Austin Rice, the Western Highlands Conference defensive player of the year. Rice and his teammates will have their hands full attempting to contain an explosive Polk County offense that has already found the end zone 19 times.
Wolverine quarterback Alec Philpott (19 for 31, 436 yards, 3 TDs) will have a multitude of offensive weapons at his disposal, including Cary Littlejohn (64 carries for 453 yards and 9 TDs), Jay Sutton (30 carries for 147 yards and 2 TDs) and Joel Booker (16 catches for 335 yards and 3 TDs).
“This [MHHS] is a program that is just two seasons removed from playing for a state championship, so we will get their best effort, and we will have to play as well as possible to come back to Columbus with a victory.”
The action begins tonight at 7:30 under the lights at Mountain Heritage High School in Burnsville.