But much like the full moon that quickly rose above the stadium lights, there was a dark side to the evening's game.

Green Hope, ranked No. 1 in the state 4A rankings, scored four times in the final 12 minutes to blow open a close game with previous N&O No. 2 Fuquay-Varina and win 7-2. Maybe the only thing more numerous than goals, and the nifty moves that led to them, were the cards handed out -- 12 in all -- and the tempers that flared.

Fuquay-Varina was responsible for half of the cards handed out, including one straight red card shown to Sam Robinson a little after 10 minutes into the second half. Robinson was caught retaliating against a Green Hope player -- though it's unknown exactly what Robinson did -- and was forced to leave the stadium.

He pulled down his shorts in response to the hecklers as he left the facility.

The Bengals, who were down just 3-2 at that point, played with a man down the rest of the way. Green Hope picked up four more goals and four more yellow cards (six total) following Robinson's ejection. Michael Montero of Green Hope picked up two yellow cards in the second half, causing him to be removed from the game and not allowed re-entry (in high school, two yellow cards for one player means the player is ejected from the game but the team does not have to go a man down).

Three times, the two teams came close to blows as two of its players got tangled up but cooler heads prevailed.

These were all the parts of the highly-anticipated battle between the Falcons (6-0, 3-0 Tri-Nine) and the Bengals (5-2-1, 2-2) that each coach wasn't proud of afterward.

"I would think our team would take the blame for that. They may not admit it, but I'll admit it," Fuquay-Varina coach James Mountford said. "There were times when we lost our composure and it's unacceptable. I told our boys, we're talented enough to compete with the best teams in the state, but you can't get too high, you can't get too low."

"I wished we had kept our composure. I don't like to see so many yellow cards," said Green Hope coach Andrew Chadwick. "It was a great test for both teams. It was just unfortunate that it got a little chippy."

Green Hope built a 3-1 lead by halftime on goals from Morgan Stevenson, Rodrigo Ortiz and Tyler Carroll. Ortiz's came off a double-assist where the Falcons used quick, one-touch passing. Carroll's goal came off a free kick where he and two teammates stood over the ball from about 22 yards out. Kellen Foster lightly tapped the ball off the spot, and Carroll ran from the opposite to send in a screaming shot.

"We have a competition on free kicks and the loser has to do 50 push-ups," Chadwick said. "So they get pretty creative with that."

Fuquay's breakaway goal came from senior Andrew Sotak, who took a touch from well to the left on the box and lobbed it over and by hard-charging Green Hope goalkeeper Thomas Mousseau.

In the second half, Sotak sent in the second header off a Fuquay corner kick to cut the lead to one with 31:19 left in the game.

Shortly thereafter, Robinson was ejected with the red card.

"When you try to play the No. 1 team in the state a man down, it's really tough to succeed and the fatigue showed at the end," Mountford said. "My player lost his composure and pushed the other guy ... And in the rulebook, if you retaliate, it's a red card."

The match stayed even for most of the next 10 minutes, despite the Bengals being shorthanded.

But after Ortiz put in his second goal with 12:45 left, the flood gates opened for Green Hope.

Carroll took a shot from the 18' that careened off a Fuquay defender and found the net with 4:51 left.

Just 52 seconds later, Carroll got his hat trick, weaving through three Fuquay defenders on a counter-attack before slotting in his third goal of the match.

"The last one, I was just trying to take it to goal and happened to get one," Carroll said. "We've improved a lot from last year -- definitely creating a lot (offensively)."

With 59 seconds left, Fraser Murphy tacked on the game's final goal in spectacular fashion, netting a wonder volley from beyond the box off a throw in.

"We have so many players who can score," Chadwick said. "Those were some great goals tonight."