But in the days following a Monday night 7-2 victory by Green Hope against Fuquay-Varina, coaches of both teams made sure to address the consequences that come when emotions reach a boiling point.

In the Tri-Nine Conference showdown, each team received six cards in the game. None were more severe than the straight red card shown to Fuquay-Varina senior 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. On Friday, it was still undetermined if Robinson would be allowed to play the rest of the year.

"I didn't even know he did that until later on," said Fuquay-Varina coach James Mountford, who was on the opposite side of the field. "That's unacceptable. I want to have a team with good sportsmanship. I just don't want people to thinking of Fuquay of acting that way."

The game, which had three near-fights between both sides, figured to be intense.

Green Hope (8-0-0) is ranked the No. 1 team in the state. Entering last week, Fuquay-Varina (6-3-1) was No. 5 among 4A teams - but is expected to drop with losses to the Falcons and Cary.

This isn't the first time a Green Hope team has held the top spot in the state, and coach Andrew Chadwick knows that his team has a target on its back. He also knows that in big games, opposing players look for any way to exploit a weakness.

"There are a couple of (our) players who I'm trying to educate. They've gotten a reputation for being hotheaded and other teams kind of target them," Chadwick said. "You've got to realize that because of your reputation, you've really got to keep your cool now."

Mountford said he thought his Bengals reacted negatively when things weren't going right on the field.

"We had a team meeting the very next day and we put it on the line. We told them that is unacceptable, but we have to move on from that," Mountford said. "We're a very talented team, but we just can't let negative things in a game bring us down."

Only a few of the cards given out in the Fuquay-Green Hope match were for rough tackles. Most came when players became tangled up and got testy or argued with the referee.

Flaring tempers have consequences in the N.C. High School Athletic Association rulebook.

If one of those near-fights had escalated, Fuquay-Varina or Green Hope could've been banned from the playoffs. The NCHSAA rules state that a team who has three or more players ejected from a contest for fighting (or leaving the bench during a fight) will not be eligible for the postseason.

A player can be forced to sit out a game or even the rest of the season based on the number of yellow cards they accumulate. A straight red card equals two yellow cards.

"It's OK that they were upset, but I can't have them displaying their emotions the way they did with the cards," Mountford said.