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.

“Korbyn’s got to score goals, he’s got to create goals for other teammates, and I think he’s definitely that go-to player,” Simmons said. “He can be a game-changing player like he was tonight, so it was good to see, and hopefully this is going to get his season really rolling in the right direction.”

“A couple of them boys, they gave me really good assists, Josh (Badillo) and (Justin Lopez),” Walton said. “But I was able to get us that momentum going into the second half, and keep it going from what I got us in the first half.”

Seeing Walton’s two early goals go in the net helped give confidence to the Pirates, who had battled to a scoreless draw Tuesday at Hoke County in their previous outing.

“Whenever you’re in close games like that and you can’t finish, you’re not really having fun,” Walton said. “Getting the boys going and getting them goals going, we started having a little bit more fun, and the game started coming back to us.”

Walton scored his first goal unassisted with a shot from the top of the box at the 35:09 mark of the first half. The second came with 29:19 on a 15-yard shot by Walton, assisted by Badillo.

Red Springs (2-3-1) held the Pirates scoreless for the rest of the half, Lumberton put the match away quickly to start the second half. Robinhio Tanis scored at the 38:09 mark on a runner assisted by Walton for a 3-0 lead, and Badillo scored off an Emilio Carrera assist with 35:38 to go for a 4-0 Pirate advantage.

Tanis’ second goal, less than a minute later at the 34:40 mark, came from short range off an assist by Walton, as Tanis got past the goalkeeper and finished. Walton completed his hat trick with a short-range goal assisted by Lopez with 31:53 remaining.

“The first half, we came out, I thought we were OK the first half, we just weren’t efficient,” Red Springs coach Andrew Hughes said. “In the second half, we kind of fell off the cliff. This is our fourth game in six days, and each one has been pretty intense. So we’re just kind of worn out, which is no excuse, but it is what it is.

Porfirio Aquino scored on a penalty kick with 21:24 to go for Lumberton, then Antonio Alvarado scored the final goal of the night, assisted by Raul Carrera, with 12:01 left.

The Pirates open United-8 Conference play with two tough matches on back-to-back days, hosting Cape Fear Tuesday before traveling to Jack Britt Wednesday. The week, which Simmons called the important week of the season, ends with next Saturday’s Robeson Cup championship against St. Pauls, to be played at Red Springs.

“Those are two pretty good teams, the teams we’re always contending with for the conference championship,” Simmons said. “It’s always tough to play back-to-back like that, in this heat, in the kind of games that those games are going to be, you’re going to exert a lot mentally and physically.”

Red Springs plays Tuesday at Hoke County, looking to rebound after three losses and a draw in a six-day span.

“(We’ll watch) film, just so they can see the mistakes we’re making, and going out there and practicing what to do, so when they get to the games they’re more confident,” Hughes said. “We do have a lot of freshmen, so what you don’t know kind of hurts you. Them learning will eventually help, it’s just a growing pain.”