For at least three quarters Friday night, nearly everything worked as planned for Polk County.

The Wolverine offense ran right at Mountain Heritage and largely ran over them, controlling the ball, scoring points and keeping the potent Cougar offense from taking the field.

But the strategy didn’t work quite as well in the third quarter, and that’s when Mountain Heritage seized control of a game that eventually ended in a 36-21 result in its favor in a Western Highlands Conference battle at G.M. Tennant Stadium.

The Cougars (6-1, 1-1) scored on their first possession of the third period, then forced Polk County’s lone turnover of the night to move into position by the end of the quarter for another score. That touchdown, which came on an 11-yard Trey Robinson touchdown pass to Cole Burleson with 9:26 remaining in the game, gave the Cougars a 36-13 lead and effectively ended the Wolverines’ hopes.

“We fought hard, we battled. We just ran out of bullets,” said Polk County head coach Jamie Thompson.

In a game on W.J. Miller Field dominated by long possessions, the Wolverines (3-4, 1-1) spent the first half Friday hammering at Mountain Heritage’s defensive interior, running between the tackles. Polk County had just four drives in the first half, one of those coming with 20 seconds left before halftime, but scored on two of those.

Trailing 6-0 early in the second period, the Wolverines used a 19-yard run by quarterback Dillon Overholt and a 19-yard screen pass to Jaymes Wingo to set up Wingo’s 6-yard touchdown run at the 8:16 mark, with Wyatt Derkach’s extra point giving Polk a 7-6 lead.

The Cougars needed just three plays to cover 61 yards and retake the lead, Robinson and Burleson teaming on a 29-yard touchdown pass with 7:18 left in the half. But back came the Wolverines, grinding out a 13-play, 69-yard drive to retake the lead on an Overholt 4-yard keeper with 1:29 left. The extra point was blocked, leaving the Wolverines down a point.

But the Cougars again struck quickly, needing four plays to cover 56 yards. Robinson powered in from the 2 with 20 seconds left and Alston Randolph added the 2-point conversion to make it a 22-13 game at the half.

Already minus senior Storm Wheeler, out for the year with a knee injury, the Wolverines lost starting linebacker Austin Wilson and Derkach to injuries in the first half. That only began the bad news for Polk in the third quarter.

A holding call helped derail the Wolverines’ first possession, which ended in a punt. Robinson then opened the Cougars’ first drive with a 35-yard pass to Burleson and soon scored on a 13-yard scamper, capping a five-play, 65-yard drive to give Mountain Heritage a 28-13 advantage.

The teams swapped possessions before the Wolverines fumbled on their 47 late in the quarter. The Cougars kept the ball on the ground and slowly marched to the end zone, Robinson’s third touchdown pass of the night ending the drive and ending Polk’s hopes of staying unbeaten in the conference race.

The Wolverines answered with another long drive capped by an Overholt 1-yard scoring sneak with 2:59 remaining for the final margin.

“I’m proud of the way the kids played. They fought hard,” Thompson said. “We’re improving. We might have lost, but we’re getting better every week.

“We knew we had to control the ball and have some long drives. We needed to move the ball down field and score. Our playcalling in the second half had to change a little bit because we were behind.”

Overholt ran for 108 yards on 20 carries and Wingo had 99 yards on 23 carries, plus three receptions for 43 yards, to lead Polk County’s offense, which ran 68 plays to Mountain Heritage’s 46.

Junior Denton ran for 174 yards on 12 carries to lead Mountain Heritage, which finished the game with 362 total yards, 250 of those on the ground.

– article submitted by PolkSports.com