Polk shot early and more often than Lincolnton at Columbus on Wednesday evening, to advance to Saturday’s second round of the state soccer playoffs.

The Wolverines likely host round two against West Stokes, an excellent team, which defeated East Rutherford, 7-0, on Wednesday.

In defeating the Wolves, 4-1, the Wolverines controlled the ball early, getting first-half goals from Samantha Firby, with 19:32 left, and the first of two goals by Ashley Love, this one with just 1:52 on the clock.

While Polk had the momentum, veteran head coach Lennox Charles, who hoped to get more players into the match, confessed, “We could have led, 4-0, at half time.”

“The good news,” he continued, “is, we won.”

Noting that in the first round of a 1A state tournament, a good team is likely to face a lesser rival, but “in 2A (as Polk is), you can go in and kill somebody, or you can be in a dog fight.”

The Wolverines had to play hard to get by Lincolnton, and did play hard.

“We can still play a lot better,” remarked Charles. “We’ve got to be cleaner with the ball,” meaning that when a Polk player first touches the ball, that player must quickly control it.

“The good news is that we won,” said Charles. “We’ll take it.”

Firby’s goal came on an assist by Caroline Lee, while Love employed an assist by Miriam Santabanez for her second goal.

Lincolnton seemed to have early momentum in the second half, but with just over five minutes into the second half, Love booted in that goal, to give Polk a 3-0 lead.

Santabanez scored on Love’s throw-in assist with 32:37 left in the match, to put the Wolverines up, 4-0.

About five or six minutes later, Polk’s outstanding goalie Kara Overholt made a good save on Lincolnton kick, but was not able to maintain control of the ball, which just managed to enter the net. After some deliberation, the officials awarded Lincolnton with its only score.

Saturday’s contest against West Stokes, “is certainly going to be a contest,” Charles said.