It was a strange couple of moments for the Milton High School boys golf team once its match with Natick concluded on Thursday night.

First they lost. Then they tied, and lost again.

But after the scores were tallied and the dust was settled, the Wildcats (6-4-1) were able to squeak by Natick with a rare 54-54 win in the third tiebreaker at Wollaston Golf Club.

The victory gives Milton the all-important assurance of a season record above .500, which automatically qualifies it for a trip to the state tournament.

Milton head coach Kevin Taylor explained how the decision was made.

"It's crazy," said Taylor. "Like I said I don't agree with the tie-breaker format, win or lose. After the first guys were tied with medal play scores in a match play event, after that we couldn't even agree when the scorecards weren't matching up, so we kept it a tie."

A pair of 4-over 40s from Malachy Maloney and Alex Corcoran allowed Milton to match up with one 40 from the Natick side, and that extra score ended up squaring away the decision.

Milton had a balanced lineup, minus No. 2 player Will England, as a majority of the golfers fired rounds in the high 30s and very low 40s. The wet weather held off for the afternoon, but the heavy rain over the past couple of days caused soggy conditions and made the 2886-yard front nine play a lot longer than the card said.

On several occasions, perfect drives down the middle would plug right where it landed and take away several more yards of roll for the young golfers.

No. 1 player Mike Mulkerrins shot a 3-over 39 and holed out a sand shot on the sixth hole to take away a point from his opponent.

Sam Taugher was the low-medalist for Milton with a 2-over 38.

Milton now can sit back and not have to worry about winning its final match of the season against Dedham on Tuesday.