RED SPRINGS — A game that was already being played a month later than originally planned had a little bit of everything. An own goal. A tight match. A delay after the lights went out mid-match.

But ultimately, the outcome of the fifth Robeson Cup championship was the same as the first four: the Lumberton Pirates remain the only name on the trophy.

Bolstered by two goals from Justin Lopez in the final eight-plus minutes, Lumberton beat St. Pauls 3-1 to remain champions of the county’s boys soccer tournament.

“We talk about it all the time,” Lumberton coach Kenny Simmons said. “It’s one of our goals at the beginning of each season, we want to be the best program in the county, the best team in the county, and we’ve been very fortunate to continue that tonight with the fifth consecutive win.”

“It means a lot, keeping the legacy alive and keeping it under our name,” Lopez said. “We played pretty good; we just started off kind of slow, and then towards the end we put the pressure on them and got the two goals.”

The Pirates (10-4-1) and Bulldogs (7-4-1) were tied in the final minutes of the match when Lopez, who transferred to Lumberton this year from St. Pauls, scored both the go-ahead goal and the additional goal to seal the outcome.

The first came with 8:21 to go, on a 12-yard shot assisted by Mario Robles.

“Mario split them and that’s when I saw I had like three feet of space, and I looked up and the goalkeeper and saw he was kind of out of position and hit it to the far post, and it went in,” Lopez said.

“He’s grown into the squad, and he’s been performing well the last couple of weeks and he’s had a few goals and assists here and there,” Simmons said. “I think he received a pretty good ball from Mario on the second goal and turned and hit a low screamer that got inside the far post.”

Moments later, the ball was batted around near the goal and found Lopez’ foot again, allowing him to finish with 5:24 left to put the Pirates up two goals.

“Korbyn (Walton) had crossed it in, and the defense was fighting for it and they hit it my way and I just finished it in the bottom corner,” said Lopez, who was named the tournament MVP.

That the goals came to win the game against Lopez’ old team made them all the more meaningful.

“I don’t think it’s much better than that,” he said.

The match was tied 1-1 with 24:29 remaining when a momentary power outage caused the stadium lights to go out, causing about a 20-minute delay as the teams waited for the lights to illuminate the Red Springs field once again.

Simmons said that the delay allowed his team to reset, having just allowed an own goal less than a minute before the stoppage.

“We were not playing very well prior to the lights going out,” Simmons said. “We had conceded the own goal, but I think mentally we were allowing some things to happen to get us out of our game mentally a little bit, and guys weren’t focused on what they needed to be doing. I think that delay kind of allowed us to bring them off and compose them a little bit, and we went back out and looked like a different team prior to the shutdown.”

St. Pauls split the nearly 25 minutes of remaining game play into two segments, coach Brent Martin said, putting numbers forward and playing more aggressively in the last 15 minutes to try and win the match.

“We started throwing Kevin (Lopez) and Covin (Gomez) in the midfield and we’re pushing them guys further forward, trying to find Omar (Canuto), and I think just spacing, we allowed them to have spacing to turn and run behind our midfield,” Martin said. “We exposed ourselves to their counterattack, and have a very good counterattack, and they have some midfielders who can cover the yards.”

Both teams played well defensively throughout the game, with nearly the entire first half passing without a goal. Raul Carrera finally broke through for the Pirates with 6:10 left in the half, scoring the goal off a deflection.

“I rebounded and I just shot it,” Carrera said. “It feels good. This is my first time winning (the Robeson Cup).”

St. Pauls evened the match at 1-1 with 25:12 left in the second half, scoring an own goal after a Bulldogs free kick deflected off a Pirate and into the net.

But the Bulldogs ultimately couldn’t convert on other opportunities through the second half.

“We couldn’t finish. We had opportunities to score,” Martin said. “But you can’t leave things on the field. The game is a fine-margin game. That’s just the difference you have, little opportunities.”

In addition to Justin Lopez, Lumberton’s Emilio Carrera, Dakoda Hunt, Walton and Robles were named to the All-Tournament team. St. Pauls’ Kevin Lopez, Omar Canuto and goalkeeper Jorge Luciano were also All-Tournament selections.

Out of five Robeson Cup championships, including three won against St. Pauls, Simmons said Saturday’s match the hardest to win.

“This was the toughest (Robeson Cup championship) game,” Simmons said. “It was a defensive struggle. You’ve got to tip your hat to both teams defensively; they made it difficult for both teams offensively, and not a lot of great goal-scoring chances throughout the game, but Justin (Lopez) came up big for us in the second half late.”

Lumberton resumes United-8 Conference play this week as the Pirates host Jack Britt on Monday. St. Pauls begins its league slate in the Southeastern Athletic Conference when the Bulldogs play West Bladen at home Monday.

Red Devils top Rams for third

In the third-place match played earlier Saturday, Red Springs scored one goal in each half to earn a 2-0 win over Purnell Swett.

Alexis Cortes put the Red Devils (4-4-1) in front with a first-half goal. Jorge Garcia then scored with 38 minutes to go for a 2-0 lead. Both goals were assisted by Alex Perez.

“Our freshmen and our seniors coming together to work together, they’re starting to click,” Red Springs coach Andrew Hughes said. “We had two freshmen that scored, but we had seniors that were making plays available for them. Purnell’s a good team, they’re a young team growing and they played tough. We had to work it out to get the win.”

“We shot ourselves in the foot,” Purnell Swett coach Alaric Strickland said. “We made a couple of bad mistakes defending; the goalie made a bad mistake on the first one, and our left back kept making the same mistake on the second one, and they took advantage of it. When they take advantage of mistakes, you get punished.”

Red Springs’ Marco Tellez and Alfredo Capulin and Purnell Swett’s Phoenix Cummings were named to the All-Tournament team.

Purnell Swett (4-8-3) hosts Cape Fear on Monday. Red Springs plays at Gray’s Creek on Tuesday.