PEMBROKE — For 68 minutes, the fans assembled at Purnell Swett’s “Big Mo” Strickland Stadium waited patiently for a breakthrough goal in Saturday’s Robeson Cup championship match.

The final 32 minutes, though — in a match that took more than the regulation 80 to decide — provided far more drama and excitement.

Purnell Swett scored the go-ahead goal in regulation, Lumberton tied the match with its back to the wall and the Rams responded with two overtime goals to earn a 3-1 win and claim their second straight Robeson Cup championship.

“Lumberton played a great game, they made it very competitive, and I’m happy for my girls, they really wanted it and they came out and they made it happen,” Purnell Swett coach Alaric Strickland said. “Overtimes have been hurting us in conference play and we finally came through in an overtime session and got the win.”

Tied 1-1 at the end of regulation, Purnell Swett (6-4) got a go-ahead goal less than three minutes into the first overtime session. The Rams were awarded a penalty kick after a Lumberton foul, and Ava Giles stepped up to take the shot; the kick was initially blocked, but Giles scored off the deflection for a 2-1 advantage.

“I just picked the right corner, and I was praying it went in, and when (the penalty kick) didn’t go in and I just kicked it in,” Giles said.

“That’s just a reflex thing,” Strickland said. “Thankfully she reacted the right way; she didn’t sit there and ‘oh, I missed it’ and just stand there, she put it in the back in the net, boom. It gave us momentum and helped us out a lot.”

Purnell Swett then provided itself with some breathing room with 1:33 left in the first overtime when Josie McLean scored for a 3-1 lead. McLean, who scored four goals in two Robeson Cup games, was named tournament MVP for the second straight year.

“I think it was Anileigh (Locklear) who passed it out to me,” McLean said. “I went towards the goal, and I just popped it out towards the corner. … I thought she was going to stop it.”

“She fought hard,” Strickland said. “She had a tough game, missing that first PK (early in the second half) and it really seemed to bother her, and she kept fighting and fighting until she got what she deserved, a goal. I’m very happy for her as well.”

The second 10-minute overtime session was largely uneventful; the scoring opportunities which occurred came for the Rams’ side.

The match was in overtime after a frantic final stretch of regulation. Two free kicks awarded to Lumberton (2-8-1) in the final minutes did not result in any scoring — including a fingertips save by Purnell Swett goalkeeper Adisyn Bland on one of them — but when the Pirates got a penalty kick after a Rams penalty with 34 seconds to go, Aydan Bullard converted to even the match at 1-1.

“Leading into that PK, everybody kind of looked to me, who to step up, but I could see that Aydan wanted the ball,” Lumberton coach Ethan Freeman said. “Quickly, before I even got her name out of my mouth, she was going to the line to take the kick. She did a great job, under pressure with 34 seconds left, she stepped up and hit it big. She did great, she performed great the whole game.”

The Pirates appeared to enter overtime with the momentum, while Purnell Swett carried the baggage of two recent overtime losses in conference play.

“It was really nerve-racking that we got to overtime,” McLean said. “Coach Alaric told us, we’ve got to put it away here, show your heart. I think that’s what we did, we showed our heart and how bad we wanted it.”

Purnell Swett took a 1-0 lead with 11:29 to go after a frenetic few seconds around the goal, with Anileigh Locklear ultimately finding the back of the net from five yards out off a short pass from Aonor Woodell.

“Aonor sent me a great ball and I saw it in front of me, and all I thought was just tap it in, tap it in,” Locklear said.

The match was scoreless until that point after some excellent play by both goalkeepers, the Rams’ Bland and the Pirates’ Brianna Richardson. Bland allowed only the Pirates’ late penalty kick over 180 minutes of Robeson Cup play in two tournament matches; Richardson had a particularly strong stretch to start the second half Saturday, with five impressive saves in the first 15 minutes of the period.

“I’m proud of my girls; they played hard and I feel like they left everything out on the field,” Freeman said. “I couldn’t ask for much more from them; they gave it their all and made it a really good championship game. I think it was a really good game for the fans to watch.”

Purnell Swett remains the only school to win the event, in its second year of existence; the Rams also defeated Lumberton 5-2 in last year’s championship match.

“That was one of the goals for the girls was, boom, let’s keep our name on that trophy, nobody else right now,” Strickland said. “That’s why I’m happy for them — they’ve accomplished one of their goals that they set for this season, so hopefully we can keep going on and get better.”

“It means a lot,” Locklear said. “We lost some of our seniors last year, some of the key players on our team, and seeing the girls all step up to the plate and do really well, it just meant a lot to everybody.”

In addition to McLean, All-Tournament selections for the Rams included Bland, Locklear, Giles and Wren Jacobs; Mia Brayboy, Bullard and Richardson were picked for Lumberton.

Purnell Swett plays Tuesday at Seventy-First and Lumberton travels to Douglas Byrd. The Pirates and Rams will meet two more times in United-8 regular-season play, April 4 at Lumberton and May 5 at Purnell Swett.

“I’d like to see these ladies back again two more times and see how those games turn out,” Freeman said. “I think hopefully with this experience here and a little bit of disappointment hopefully we’ll come back with a little more fire, maybe we’ll have a different result next time.”

St. Pauls comes back to beat Red Springs for third place

Two second-half goals led St. Pauls to a come-from-behind victory over Red Springs in the Robeson Cup’s third-place match Saturday.

Trailing 1-0 at halftime, St. Pauls (4-3) got an equalizer as Thanya Garcia scored on the counterattack with 29:55 to go. Garcia then scored again with 6:29 remaining, converting on a penalty kick for a 2-1 lead.

“The first half, I’m not going to lie, we were pretty bad,” St. Pauls coach Saul Lopez said. “We let one in, we didn’t start aggressive like we wanted to. … Then in the second half, I told them let’s start strong, we can get back in this. I made minor adjustments to the formation, and we got what we wanted.”

Shaniz Zangana scored a first-half goal five minutes into the match for Red Springs (1-5).

“We’ve got to start playing situationally, looking at a situation and playing according to that,” Red Springs coach Andrew Hughes said. “First half, we had the wind helping us out, and we got one goal but we didn’t take advantage like we should. The second half came and goals were going to be harder for us.”

St. Pauls’ Garcia and Jaqueline Castillo and Red Springs’ Alena Oxendine earned All-Tournament honors.

Both teams face Midway in their next match; Red Springs will travel to Newton Grove Tuesday, while the Bulldogs are off until they host the Raiders on April 4.