For Athens Drive, a very close shave.

Athens stopped Holly Springs on a two-point conversion with no time remaining in regulation to slip past the Golden Hawks with a 39-37 victory in the final regular-season game.

Holly Springs drove 99 yards in two minutes after stopping the Jaguars on four plays inside the five yard line. Quarterback Mike Roach cut a 39-31 lead to two points when he scored from one yard out with no time on the clock.

Roach pitched to senior J.J. Graves on the two-point conversion but Athens was ready for the play and swarmed to Graves, stopping him at the 2-yard line.

The win created a three-way tie for second place in the Tri-Nine Conference between Athens (8-3), Holly Springs (7-4), and Fuquay-Varina (9-2). All three teams finished the season 6-2 in the conference.

A draw was used to determine playoff seeding, and Fuquay came out on top with a second-place draw, while Athens was third and Holly Springs fourth. All three are locks for the postseason.

Middle Creek captured the Tri-Nine title with a perfect conference record.

“I thought we should have put the game away on the goal line when we were up (39-31),” said Athens coach Jeff Smouse, whose Jaguars led 25-14 at halftime. “They did a great job stopping us and then going 99 yards was impressive.”

The Golden Hawks were disappointed with the loss, which snapped a six-game conference winning streak, but had a winning season for the first time in school history.

“We made so many mental mistakes that we had not been making that really put us in a hole,” said Holly Springs coach Jim Hynus, whose Hawks had won only two games before this season.

Graves dominated on the ground, scoring three Holly Springs touchdowns and rushing for 195 yards, while Corron Boston's 60-yard pass to Marc Jones (146 receiving yards) set up the Hawks final touchdown. Graves eclipsed 1,200 yards rushing on the season.

The Jaguars were unstoppable through the air, as quarterback Ben Snotherly completed 15 of 28 passes for 273 yards, with Louis Wilder catching seven of the passes for 200 yards and a key second half touchdown.

Kyree Green (130 rushing yards) scored four touchdowns, three rushing and one receiving, for Athens.