FUQUAY-VARINA — Holly Springs continued its 'Cardiac' Hawk ways on Friday night, using a seven-yard touchdown pass from Mike Roach to Corron Boston with 36.6 seconds left to defeat its arch-rival Fuquay-Varina for the first time in school history.

It was the fourth straight win for the Golden Hawks (5-3, 4-1), and all four have been decided in the final 61 seconds.

"They just come up with the plays to win," an incredulous Holly Springs coach Jim Hynus said. "There's no tangible thing to say it's this or it's that ... Right now we just feel like we can't lose to anybody."

The previously-undefeated Bengals (6-1, 3-1) had gone up 25-20 with 4:49 left on fullback Cory Hunter's fourth touchdown run of the night. After long kickoff return by Holly Springs' J.J. Graves in the second quarter, Fuquay had been pooch-kicking its kickoffs, and tried so again.

This time, a Fuquay player recovered — but a teammate had touched the ball first before it traveled the mandatory 10 yards, setting up Holly Springs on their own 45. On their first play, Holly Springs nearly cost itself the game after an option pitch from Roach bounced off K.J. Herndon, who recovered.

Three plays later, Roach found a sliding Marc Jones for a 10-yard gain on third-and-seven. Jones moved the chains again on a first-and-10 on the FV 29, after he took a hard shot from Fuquay's Hunter while coming down with the ball. Jones kept his feet, then ran for extra yardage for a 17-yard gain.

"It was an amazing catch," Roach said. "He's got some great hands."

Two runs by Graves put the ball on the FV 2-yard line on a first-and-goal, but a false start penalty marched Holly Springs back to the 7. Roach, a sophomore, displayed a steely reserve on the final drive, going 3-for-3 and cumulating in the score to Boston.

"Everybody keeps doubting us saying we can't beat this team, [or] we can't beat that team. They're saying every game is a fluke, and ya'll kind of got something to do with that right?" Boston, a senior, said jokingly to reporters after the game. "I'm just glad we came out here and showed what we can really do."

The two teams had been back-and-forth all night, with Holly Springs taking an early 7-0 lead on a half-yard touchdown run from Graves in the first quarter. Fuquay's Hunter answered with a touchdown of his own in the second, but the extra point went awry to keep the Hawks in the lead, 7-6.

Graves, who ran for 100 yards on the night, scored three plays after his 76-yard kickoff return on a third-and-goal from the 19. Holly Springs led 14-6, but Hunter's 2-yard plunge on the following 15-play drive made it 14-13 at half.

Hunter ran for 82 yards and four touchdowns, but failed to break any run for longer than 22 yards.

"We weren't going to stop him. There's no way you can keep him from getting his yardage," Hynus said. "The big thing was to stop the 50-yard runs, the 40-yard runs and we did that."

Fuquay took the lead with 2:11 to go in the third on Hunter's 1-yard run. The two-point conversion run by quarterback Nate Budde failed, which left it 19-14 in Fuquay's favor.

Holly Springs capped off a 9-play, 43-yard drive with a two-yard quarterback sneak from Roach. Roach could not run in the two-point conversion, so Holly Springs led 20-19.

Hunter's fourth score of the night gave Holly Springs just enough time to score its game-winning drive, for what's without question the biggest win in school history during what's the best season in school history.

"We click. That's it. We've been open for four years now, we've finally clicked," Boston said. "On the back of our shirts two years ago it said 'Never give up,' and that's what we do. We don't give up."

After setting goals before the year of going to the playoffs, or having a winning season, Holly Springs is now in the thick of things for the conference championship.

"Now we're setting higher goals. Now we're greedy," Hynus said. "We're now back in the middle of the conference championship. We win out, who knows what happens the rest of the year? We could be sitting there as conference champions and having a home playoff game."