Holly Springs – Deficits are nothing new to the Holly Springs football team. Prior to Thursday night, that trait had always been a bad thing. But that night was different for the Golden Hawks.

Not just because it was another night where they fell behind early but it was the first night Holly Springs took the big steps forward of fixing why they were behind (the early mistakes) and doing something about it (finding their groove in the veer option offense), rallying to beat Knightdale 34-26 before a packed homecoming night crowd after trailing by 20 points twice. "The thing is we spotted them 20 points," said Holly Springs coach Jim Hynus. "We just screwed ourselves up on the first drive and had the bad snap. They didn't hurt us much; we hurt ourselves."

The win is the Hawks' first ever in conference play and hands the Knights a shocking loss after Knightdale had opened its league slate with wins over 2007 state playoff qualifiers Smithfield-Selma and Southeast Raleigh.

The Knights (3-5 overall, 2-2 GNRC) built a 20-0 lead on a 25-yard TD run by Greg Jackson on the game's opening drive, a fumble recovery in the end zone (by Antoine McLean) after a high punt snap and another short touchdown drive (ending with a 37-yard pass reception by Aaron Smith after a pass from Holly Springs' quarterback Mark Collins was intercepted after two Knight defenders deflected it.

But then, Holly Springs' defense held Knightdale scoreless for the final 33 minutes of play after allowing 26 points in the first 15.

"I can't say enough about the job our defensive guys and coaches did," said Hynus. "The coaches: Matt Clifton, Jeff Fishback and Rod Whitesell -- made the right moves to get our guys in the right place and we made plays."

Offensively, the Golden Hawks slowly found their groove on the ground. Even with the big deficits, Holly Springs stuck with its game plan and continued to roll up the yardage on the ground.

Big yardage to the tune of 362 yards rushing on the night on 41 carries. Fullback J.J. Graves did most of the damage with 241 yards rushing on 24 carries and a pair of touchdowns. Collins added three rushing TDs and 106 yards on the night.

Knightdale also had two runners top the century mark on the ground. Jackson finished with 130 yards, while Josh Gorham totaled 101 yards.

"We don't know what teams will do against us because so few teams run the offense we run," Hynus said. "We started out looking for the pitch and it wasn't there. But during the week of practice, we prepare to adjust during the game and that's one of the great things about this group, they love the process of preparing for a game."

The Golden Hawks' dedication started to show up in the second quarter. Collins got the Hawks on the board late in the first quarter, then added a 5-yard TD run that answered the Knights' final score of the first half (and the game).

Things looked even better when Graves added a 16-yard TD run with just 24.3 seconds to play in the half. Holly Springs drove 67 yards in just 65 seconds for the score. Graves had a 35-yard run right up the gut of the Knightdale defense that came before his TD run, also right up the gut.

"It looks like the same play but its really three different plays with different blocking adjustments," Hynus said of his team's success up the middle of the field. "If we do it right, it looks like the same play to the opposition. We were able to read it right and keep the chains moving."

Collins' third TD run of the night, from 1-yard out, pulled Holly Springs even at 26 with 59.6 seconds to go in the third quarter. Nick Hohns' extra-point gave the Hawks the lead for good.

Graves rumbled 28 yards early in the fourth for the game's final score.

The Hawks moved to 2-6 overall and 1-3 in the conference heading into a league-wide open date this Friday. With a couple of wins in their final three games or even three wins in the final three, a playoff berth could be a possibility.

"Usually, it's going to take five [wins] to get in," Hynus said. "If we win out, we've got a good chance of getting in. It's going to be a lot of hard work but it's just great to finally get to the point where you have that shot."