RALEIGH - In a matter of minutes Friday night, the Middle Creek boys lacrosse team watched as its three-point halftime lead vanished on four consecutive Athens Drive goals. With 5:40 left in the third, Athens had a one-point lead and seemingly all the momentum.

But Middle Creek (2-2 overall, 2-2) had an answer, scoring three unanswered goals and thriving in a keep-away ball-control offense to down its Conference 2 foe, 9-7.

"Athens started to get momentum, and we were making a lot of bad passes, a lot of mistakes. We were bringing the ball down and the first pass, we'd throw it away," said attacker James Hughes, who led the Mustangs with three goals and two assists.

"We settled down. That's how we won that game ... We settled the ball and held it as long as possible, because if the ball is over here, they can't score."

Attacker Nikko Hilvano -- who finished with two goals and two assists -- quickly generated some offense for Middle Creek, assisting midfielder Eric Powell on the tying goal that made it 7-7 with 4:29 left in the third, then scoring the unassisted go-ahead goal just over a minute later. Hughes scored for good measure in the fourth.

"We really work hard on our rise and just pressuring the ball and creating transitions," said Middle Creek coach Paul Robison. "And when we do have it on offense, we try to keep the ball and have long possessions, kind of disrupt them getting the ball back.

"The key was just patience. We made a lot of mistakes early and they're good club, and we were able to be patient with the ball, look for good open passes and put it in the net," Robison added.

Middle Creek struck first in the game, as midfielder Dexter Montague scored on the team's first shot on goal with less than three minutes gone by in the game. Powell, who had two goals Friday, then scored on an assist from Hughes as the Mustangs jumped out to a 2-0 lead.

Athens (2-3, 1-3) answered with goals from Daniel Haupt and John Padden.

The Jaguars and Mustangs traded blows the rest of the first quarter, as Andrew McCauley scored an unassisted goal for the Mustangs and the Jaguars' John Hughey scored for Athens on an assist from Cory Townsend.

Then, Middle Creek's three-goal run made it 6-3 at half.

Athens fought back in the third, as Padden, Daniel Hughey, Josh Farrar and Townsend all scored for the Jaguars, pushing Athens to a 7-6 lead.

It was Farrar's unassisted goal with 6:07 left in the third that tied the game 6-6, before Townsend scored on an assist from Daniel Hughey (who had a team-high two assists) to give Athens its first and only lead of the night.

But ultimately, Middle Creek took control when it had to.

"Towards the end there, we just had one too few possessions. It's a good team there and we put a good effort out there, we played them hard and we just couldn't get over the top. We had too many goals to come back from, we spotted them too big of a lead," said Athens coach Brian Yerger.

"A couple years ago, I think if we fell down three, then we would have fell down six and maybe nine ... but these guys, they've put a lot of work into this and the hard work is finally starting to pay off and I'm really proud of the guys' effort," Yerger added.

Padden, who led Athens with two goals, added: "I think the abilities are there. And we're going to turn that corner pretty soon. We're not going to plateau like we did last year."