3-for-3: LJHS beats Red Springs, wins MS boys soccer title again

LUMBERTON — The Lumberton Junior High School soccer program isn’t used to playing from behind.

The Vikings entered Tuesday’s Robeson County middle school championship game against Red Springs as the two-time defending champions — the only school to win the title since the Public Schools of Robeson County began sanctioning middle school soccer in 2022 — and undefeated for the 2024 season.

But LJHS trailed early after a Red Springs goal — then responded with three unanswered goals to come out on top again with a 3-1 victory.

“We told them before the game, be prepared to face adversity,” LJHS coach Daniel Humphrey said. “That was our first time being down all season, when we went down 1-0. When we made that first goal, I think our confidence got picked back up and we knew what we could do. So the second half, I pretty much told them, let’s keep putting pressure on the back line, and those guys did that pretty much the whole first 10 minutes of the second half, and that helped us persevere and get those two goals.”

Red Springs (10-2-1) scored first on Alexis Cortez’ first-half goal. Lonnie Porter scored the equalizer for LJHS (13-0) with about 10 minutes left in the half.

“(Humphrey) was just talking to us (at halftime) telling us that we were good; we’d been in this type of situation before, we just had to fight through it and play together,” Porter said.

Porter scored the go-ahead goal midway through the second half.

“Lonnie didn’t play for us last year, this is his first year playing school soccer, but he played growing up,” Humphrey said. “We knew that he’d come in and being big for us, being a forward and with his size. He’s finished the season out with 27 goals in 13 games. So he was big for us; we needed some guys to step up with our best player leaving last year, so he was big for us all year.”

Braydo Aguilar created some separation with a Vikings goal about five minutes later for a 3-1 lead.

“I just know it was a very competitive game,” Red Springs coach Lynell Woods said. “I can’t complain about the result. We had them in the first half, kind of sort of, and they just kept fighting, so I say the difference is the will, the will to win.”

LJHS finished a third straight championship, though this is the first time out of the three that the Vikings have been undefeated for the season.

“It means a lot,” Porter said. “(Humphrey) always talked to us, told us we were going to be here again this year. We had to win it and play hard.”

Top-seeded Lumberton defeated No. 8 Parkton and No. 4 St. Pauls to reach the championship game.

“From day one, when we very first started this program, my goal was for us to build a championship team, championship program,” Humphrey said. “Those guys that started, they set the tone from day one, and when these guys came in and we started our preseason workouts, I told them we had the same goals as the guys before them, and they just pretty much kept it up. I told these guys we were going to take it one game at a time, and that’s what we pretty much did. … These guys come in every day, they work hard, they take what I throw at them and they learn from it and they grow.”

No. 3 Red Springs beat No. 6 Orrum in the first round of the playoffs before upending No. 2 Pembroke in the semifinals, marking the first Red Springs team since 2015 to reach the middle school county championship in any sport.

“I’m very proud of all they’ve accomplished,” Woods said. “They accomplished something we haven’t accomplished in 10 years for Red Springs Middle School, so I’m very proud of that.”