No one said perfection had to be perfect.

In the final match of the regular season, three of River Hill's four golfers scored below their season point averages at the Timbers at Troy Sept. 29. But, going up against a Glenelg squad playing without its top golfer, Matt Philie, the Hawks still did just enough to earn a 78-73 victory and the program's second undefeated season in four years.

"Individually we didn't shoot great scores, but, like we have all season, we won as a team," River Hill coach Matt Graves said. "In these matches, it almost turns into a match play situation, where each of our guys just tries to beat the guy they're playing against. You don't have to be great, you just have to be better than them."

Even without the 26-point average of Philie, who was away on a college visit, the Gladiators (9-2) kept things interesting behind the play of Alex Taylor (24 points) and Steven Castro (19). Those two ended up beating the Hawks' tandem at the top, Patrick Bindel (22) and Ryan Park (19).

Things actually would have been even tighter had Taylor, who started his round with a double bogey, not been forced to take an unplayable lie when his ball ended up behind a tree on the ninth hole. He ended up making another double bogey after playing the previous seven holes one under par.

"Going in, we felt we still had a shot, but it was going to take me and Castro beating their top two by eight or nine shots and my first and last holes didn't help," Taylor said. "It's hard to be too upset with Matt not here. He makes a big difference, and we played our best. Our focus is really now on the county and district tournaments."

In the second group, River Hill (11-0) got a huge boost from Will Swygert putting up 22 points, which tied his second-best total of the season. Mike Miller added 15 points for the Hawks, while Ryan Bost and Mike Miller scored 15 apiece for the Gladiators.

River Hill's undefeated campaign marks the fourth consecutive year that a county team (Centennial, the previous two) has finished the regular season unbeaten.

"It's one of those things that's been building all year," Swygert said. "It was a goal for us before the season, back then we knew we had the potential. But I guess it really didn't start sinking in until after the Marriotts Ridge match and we were (8-0). We felt like we were better than our record last year and this year we've proven it."

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