WAKE FOREST - One football game yielded three champions Friday night. Wake Forest-Rolesville defeated Leesville Road 7-0 to give both teams a share of the Cap Seven title, along with Broughton.

"This is history; this school has never won a conference championship," Wake Forest-Rolesville coach Earl Smith said.

Nor have the Cougars ever shared a title. The same can be said for Leesville Road.

"I'm proud of them," Leesville Road coach David Green said. "I don't think anyone in the world gave us a chance at the start of the season."

The tie came about because Wake Forest-Rolesville (7-4 overall, 5-1 league) beat Leesville (8-2, 5-1), which in turn beat Broughton (8-3, 5-1), which beat WF-R. Broughton preserved its share of the tie by defeating Sanderson 42-14 Friday night.

Wake Forest earned its share with its defense. The Cougars forced five turnovers, picking off Pride quarterback Thomas Wilson three times. None was more important than Charles Ferrell's interception at the Cougars' 33-yard line with 1:07 left in the game to end Leesville's final drive.

"I can't say enough about our defense," said Smith, who also noted an interception by sophomore Kevin Hartsfield late in the first quarter that gave the Cougars the ball at the Leesville 12-yard line.

Wake Forest took advantage of the short field two plays later when Brandon Davis found Courtney Johnson in the end zone from 7 yards out for the game's only touchdown. Caleb Epps' extra point capped the night's scoring.

"I felt like field position and turnover ratios would be key," Smith said.

The Leesville offense appeared on the verge of scoring much of the game, but the turnovers proved costly. Three of the five occurred inside the Cougars' 20-yard line.

"When you get two good football playing teams, whoever makes the fewest mistakes usually wins," Green said.

In addition to the turnovers, Leesville missed 22-yard field-goal attempt early in the second quarter and dropped two passes in the end zone.

"We made too many mistake, plain and simple," Green said.

Still, Leesville appeared ready to score when it recovered a fumbled punt return by the Cougars at the Wake Forest 17-yard-line late in the fourth quarter. However, two plays later the Cougars forced a fumble and recovered the ball at their 12-yard line with 4:15 left.

After making one first down, Wake Forest was forced to punt, and the Pride took over at its own 28-yard line.

Two Wilson passes and a running play moved the ball to the Cougars' 49 with just over a minute left. But Wilson's next pass was tipped by a defender and fell into the hands of Ferrell.

"All year we get into these positions, and we have come through," Green said.

Instead, Wake Forest-Rolesville earned its first conference title.

"We played like champions tonight," Smith said.

Roughly 90 minutes after the game, Leesville got the last laugh, however. In order to determine conference seeding for the playoffs, the athletics directors of the three schools, along with Smith and Green sat in the Wake Forest press box to draw seedings to break the tie.

Three strips of loose-leaf paper and a 105th U.S. Open ball cap belonging to Leesville AD Marshall Hamilton helped determine the teams' fate.

Green drew first for Leesville, glanced and uttered, "I don't believe it." Green turned the paper to reveal the scrawled number "1". Broughton AD, Jack Spain let out a sound of disgust as he drew the No. 3 seed, leaving Smith to silently draw the No. 2 seed.

The seedings will be used to determine the opponents in next week's NCHSAA 4-A playoffs.