Wildcats win clash of district kings

BENTON, Tenn. — Polk County linebacker Michael Hargrove plays both sides of the ball for Polk County, but he said earlier this week that offense sells tickets and defense wins championships.

Hargrove didn’t mention special teams, but it was defense and special teams that lifted the Wildcats into the second round of the Class 3A playoffs with an 18-13 victory over Tyner in a clash of district champions Friday night.

“Tyner is a tremendous offense and gave up just 13 points. I guess what comes to mind immediately is that I missed four tackles,” the senior said.

Despite the four misses, he finished with 10 solos and had two lost-yardage hits.

The District 5-AA champion Wildcats got their second 10-win season thanks to an 80-yard punt return by Alex Akins that set up a 5-yard scoring pass from Jared Allen to Tyler Lee, and a 13-yard interception return by linebacker Coty Farmer put the Wildcats up 18-7 with 8:31 left in the game.

“All I know is that we’re 1-0 in the new season,” said Farmer, whose interception was the first of his career. “It couldn’t have come at a better time. I didn’t think I had caught it at first, and as I was running to the end zone I saw a [Tyner] guy cutting across and I thought he was going to get me so I dove.”

Polk’s defensive effort might be considered pesky after turning in a bend-don’t-break performance. While the Wildcats allowed the District 6-AA champion Rams 280 yards, they also stymied a drive inside their own 4.

“Tyner is a great team and I still don’t know how we [got] paired up in the first round,” Allen said. “We didn’t play our greatest game, but we won. I thought all along this game would come down to defense.”

Polk coach Derrick Davis was elated with his defense.

“[Tyner] stumped us a little. They showed us some things we hadn’t seen,” Davis said. “You can talk about luck but you create your own luck, and when the opportunities came our guys were in the right place. I can’t say enough about their preparation this week. They studied, they watched a lot of film and they paid attention and worked especially hard in practice.”