Lumberton, St. Pauls soccer teams earn state playoff bids
Oct. 27—The Lumberton and St. Pauls boys soccer teams each earned berths in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association state playoffs when brackets were released on Friday.
Lumberton (21-6) earned a No. 7 seed in the 4A East Region; the Pirates will host No. 26 Hoke County (14-9-1) in Monday's first round at 6:30 p.m.
Lumberton earned an automatic bid as the regular-season champion of the United-8 Conference; the Pirates will be at home through at least the second round, should they advance. Hoke County earned an at-large bid after finishing fourth in the Sandhills Athletic Conference.
Lumberton defeated Hoke County 3-0 in a nonconference game on Aug. 23. The programs were also conference opponents before the last NCHSAA realignment in 2021.
St. Pauls (11-8) is the No. 19 seed in the 2A East Region and will travel to No. 14 James Kenan (12-5-3) on Monday.
The Bulldogs earned at at-large berth after finishing third in the Southeastern Athletic Conference; James Kenan earned an automatic bid as the runner-up in the East Central Conference.
Red Springs and Purnell Swett did not qualify for the state playoffs. Red Springs was ranked 37th in the RPI rankings for the 2A East Region and was essentially the fifth team out of the field, while Purnell Swett was 39th in 4A East and seventh out.
