Second straight win and second straight shutout, all good Wednesday for Polk County. Second-half performance in that victory? Not as pleasant, according to head coach Lennox Charles.

Buoyed by a quick start, Polk County blanked Brevard 4-0 in a non-conference match at Polk. The Wolverines built a 2-0 halftime lead and kept the Blue Devils at bay the remainder of the evening.

In a physical contest that saw one red card issued to players on both teams and a number of yellow cards, the Wolverines (2-2) got goals from Sam Korzelius, Isaias Akers and Isaac Edwards in the win.

But it was the effort after halftime that occupied Charles’ mind after the match.

“I thought in the first half, we played pretty well,” the veteran coach said. “In the second half, offensively, we did OK, but defensively, I’m not real pleased with the second half.

“They kept trying to serve the ball over our heads, and we kept waiting for serves, then reacting and getting ourselves in trouble.”

The Wolverines quickly gained the upper hand as Edwards drew a foul in the penalty area less than two minutes into the match. Korzelius took the ensuing penalty kick and buried it in the left corner of the net for 1-0 lead.

Polk struck again at the 29:55 mark of the first half. Brett Phipps played a pass toward the Brevard goal, with Akers cutting into the middle of the field to receive it. The Blue Devil goalkeeper raced out for the ball as well, but Akers was quicker, deftly sliding a shot past the oncoming keeper and into the goal for a 2-0 lead.

Though the Wolverines kept the ball on their end of the field much of the second half, Polk only had an own goal to show for it until Edwards tallied with 2:47 remaining in the match, making a nice move on the left side to create an opening, then firing a shot into the right side of the net.

“They wanted the game to be physical, to be direct,” Charles said. “We needed to do a better job slowing the game down instead of just running up and down the field.”

Results for Thursday’s match against R-S Central were not available at press time.

– Submitted by PolkSports.com