Carrollton's boys lacrosse team played in perhaps the most significant game in school history on Thursday against the Hillgrove Hawks to essentially determine the top of region 7A area 3.

With the game tied 14-14 and the clock ticking down in regulation, Trojan Liam Laney delivered the game-winning goal with 5.6 seconds left, and Carrollton's defense held on for a 15-14 win.

"I'm so proud of how these kids fight. We talked to them the whole week about whatever it takes, and they did just that," said head coach Zach Gordon. "Our motto is 'chop,' and they chopped the whole game and never gave up. I couldn't be more proud of this group."

Seniors Jackson Clifton and Will Taylor led the offensive attack for Carrollton in the win with five goals each. Finny McClendon and Laney both scored two goals each, and sophomore Drew Mills rounded out the attack with one goal at the top of the third quarter.

"It's just a great team victory. We've worked so hard this season. We know what we can do, and we did just that tonight," said Clifton after the game.

The Trojans had a fast start to the night, with Taylor finding the back of the net just over a minute into the game to put the Trojans up 1-0. But this momentum did not last, and Hillgrove scored twice before the end of the first quarter to make it 2-1 Hawks.

Carrollton got their offense rolling again to start the second quarter as Clifton, McClendon, Laney and Taylor all scored goals within the span of less than two minutes to give the Trojans the lead back, 5-2 with 8:40 until halftime.

But just like the first quarter, Hillgrove fought their way back. Oliver Flynn notched two in this stretch, and with two more from his teammates, Hillgrove had the lead yet again, 6-5.

A save by Carrollton goalie Kaleb Ellison as the buzzer sounded kept the score this way at the half.

Carrollton came out of the half-aggressive on defense and created several turnovers, and as a result, the Trojans scored three times in the first three minutes, one by Mills and two by Clifton.

A laser shot by McClendon prefaced two more Clifton goals to finish out the third period, giving the Trojans their largest lead of the night, 12-8, going into the final 12 minutes.

But the Hawks, as they had all game, made another run to cut it close. This time, the Hawks outscored Carrollton 4-1 through the first six minutes of the fourth period, and Flynn scored the tying goal, 13-13, with 5:44 left to play.

Hillgrove continued their run on the back of Cade Baxter, who scored the go-ahead goal and seemed to score another. However, his second score was taken off the board.

"It was a stick check, and he wasn't using a legal stick, so the goal was taken off," Coach Gordon said. "It was just a bang-bang thing, and it turned out to work in our favor."

Twenty-eight game seconds later, Taylor drove in for the game-tying score, knotting things up at 14-14 with 3:00 on the clock.

Carrollton later inbounded with 20 seconds left, and McClendon drove in looking to score. Laney recovered and made the shot, braving a collision with Hillgrove defenders in the process.

"It just shows how hard we've worked in and out of practice and how much more we can do throughout the season," Taylor added.

Carrollton (10-1, 3-0) has one more game left against East Coweta to officially close out a region championship, and Taylor says they plan to treat it like any other game.

"We can't come into it too confident," he said. "Just treat it like any other game, and we should be good."

That game will be played at home on April 13 starting at 6 p.m.