APEX There were times Friday night when Middle Creek’s passing game wasn’t ideal. But the Mustangs connected when they needed to in a Tri-Nine 4A Conference win over Lee County, 21-19.

David Salmon threw three touchdown passes and Middle Creek held on after a late Yellow Jackets’ rally attempt Friday at Middle Creek’s field.

Salmon finished the night 9-of-15 for 161 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Five of his incompletions were dropped balls.

“As a quarterback and as a receiver you have to have a short-term memory,” Salmon said. “You can’t let one drop turn into two drops. You just have to let it go and move on to the next play.”

Middle Creek bounced back from its first loss of the season last week to Garner as the Mustangs improved to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in Tri-Nine Conference play. Lee County dropped to 3-2 and 1-1 in the Tri-Nine.

“We started off a little slow and I missed some reads,” Salmon said. “But once we settled down we got into a rhythm.”

Salmon’s second-quarter TD passes gave the Mustangs a 14-6 halftime lead that he extended to 21-6 early in the fourth quarter with a 30-yard touchdown pass to Curtis Burston.

Lee County rallied with two fourth-quarter touchdowns on a 1-yard run by Ray McAuley and a 2-yard score by Matthew Givens and had a chance to tie the game with 1:28 to play on a 2-point conversion pass.

Yellow Jackets’ quarterback Chad Arrington hit T.J. Lett at the goal line with a completed pass, but the officials he was wrapped up as he caught the ball and the officials ruled he didn’t break the plane before he was tackled.

Lett finished the night with 11 catches for 147 yards.

Lee County’s first-half points came on a field goals of 29 and 22 yards.

Four of the first five passes Salmon threw were dropped, but he was 5-of-5 in the second quarter with touchdown tosses of 23 and 32 yards that were both worthy of a TV highlight show.

Salmon hit Demetrius Wilkins in stride in the middle of the end zone for the first TD. On the second score he threaded the needle in the right corner of the end zone to Quinton Ray.