With one game left, the Mustangs own the head-to-head tiebreaker over second-place Holly Springs.

“[I] can’t say enough about them. We told them earlier in the year, we thought we had the pieces to the puzzle and just had to work hard and believe in each other, and these guys did it,” Middle Creek coach Sean Crocker said. “We hadn’t beaten Garner, we hadn’t beaten Fuquay in four years … my hats off to this group. I thank God for them.”

In a match-up with the conference’s top two offenses and defenses, the defenses won out on this night. The Bengals, who had second-half difficulties running the ball on the Mustangs’ defense, countered that by holding an explosive passing game by Middle Creek in check for most of the night.

Middle Creek mustered just 10 yards rushing, and Fuquay gained just 177 yards rushing after more than 300 in eight games this year.

“I didn’t really know what to expect from this game. We’ve got a good offense, they’ve got a good offense. They’ve got a good defense and we feel like we’ve got a good defense,” Crocker said. “Something had to give, and tonight the defenses made it really, really tough on the offenses.”

The first half ended with Fuquay holding a narrow 7-6 lead. For Middle Creek, that wasn’t a bad deal considering they managed only 17 offensive plays, not counting punts, in the entire half.

Fuquay had 14 plays on the game’s first drive alone, culminating in a 6-yard touchdown run by junior fullback Cory Hunter.

“I think we had one possession in the first quarter. I thought ‘if it’s going to be like this, it’s going to be really hard to beat these guys,’” Crocker said. “Luckily our defense started to come together, we made some adjustments and our guys responded well. I think we may have caught them off-guard — I’m not sure. The offense did come through with several big plays when we needed them.”

The Mustangs didn’t answer until 4:05 to go in the second quarter as quarterback Garrett Leatham found sophomore Jon Moore on a fade route from 15 yards away. The extra point sailed wide right, keeping Fuquay in the lead.

The Mustangs took the lead in the third on a one-yard touchdown run by Leatham. Earlier in the drive, Leatham found Moore on a slant route that went 63 yards on a third-and-7 from the Mustangs’ own 33.

Frongello’s extra point kick was blocked by defensive tackle Shawn Underwood to keep the score at 12-7, Middle Creek. He did, however, nail a 28-yard field goal with 7.8 seconds left in the third quarter to pad the Mustangs’ lead to 15-7.

A deep punt by Frongello pinned Fuquay at its own 4-yard line with 3:53 to go. But that was overcome with a key 4th-down conversion and an 83-yard touchdown pass from Nate Budde to Eric Powell with 1:50 left. Aside from that long pass play, Middle Creek had allowed just 67 yards in the second half.

Budde’s two-point conversion pass sailed too high, however, and Fuquay failed to collect the onsides kick. A few snaps later, the Mustangs had the Tri-Nine championship in hand.

“We’ve got an outstanding group of seniors and young guys who jelled together. I just hope that we can continue to build momentum,” Crocker said. “I don’t think our best ball is behind us. I’m looking forward to the next few weeks to see what we can accomplish.”