LUMBERTON — Through the first few games of the 2024 season, the Lumberton boys soccer team had struggled to finish around the net.
But the opening 11 minutes of the first half Thursday against Red Springs set a different tone — then the opening nine minutes of the second half were, in the words of Pirates forward Korbyn Walton, an avalanche.
From a two-goal halftime lead, Lumberton exploded for four goals early in the second half, sending the Pirates to an 8-0 rout of the Red Devils.
“The whole halftime talk was about coming out here and finding the third goal early, and we found (No.) 3, 4, 5 and 6 pretty quick, and the game was over at that point,” Lumberton coach Kenny Simmons said.
Walton had a hat trick for Lumberton (2-3-1), scoring both of the Pirates’ goals in the first 11 minutes of the match and adding the final goal of the team’s four-goal run early in the second half, and also had two assists.