LUMBERTON — After everything that the 22-hour span of the Lumberton-Red Springs football game entailed, it all came down to one play — and culminated beneath a beautiful rainbow.

The Pirates went for two following a late touchdown to pull within one, leaving the win or loss to a single snap. But Red Springs stuffed Lumberton on that attempt, and the Red Devils earned a 19-18 win in the first meeting between the programs.

“It was a great game; I wish Lumberton could’ve enjoyed the home game, that thriller,” Red Springs coach Tim Ray said. “I think the crowd would’ve really enjoyed that game. I think it’s a heck of a way to start the Red Springs-Lumberton saga, whatever you want to call it. We’ve asked some guys to make big plays and they made big plays, and that’s all we can do, keep coming out here and working and getting everybody involved.”

The game was suspended Friday just after the second-half kickoff when shots were fired in the parking lot of Alton G. Brooks Stadium. After it initially appeared the game would be canceled, the decision was made early Saturday to resume the game at 4 p.m. with no fans in attendance.

“I can’t describe (the last 24 hours),” Ray said. “I don’t think I went to bed until 4 o’clock last night, and we were up making game-time decisions at 7. I’ve been going for the last two days; I think after this, with the win, by the time we get back to the school my body’s going to shut down. I’m just riding on the adrenaline right now.”

Lumberton coach Dennis McFatten had initially planned to take his JV team to Methodist University’s game Saturday in Fayetteville, but ended up coaching a game on Saturday for the first time in his coaching career. A handful of Lumberton players opted not to play the game due to safety concerns in light of Friday’s incident, the coach said.

“It was definitely a roller coaster, being on the phone late at night, getting up and having phone calls trying to figure out what we’re going to do, getting the laundry done, making sure that we’re ready to play, getting up here, creating depth charts,” McFatten said. “I will say I’ve got a great coaching staff and an awesome group of kids. … If it wasn’t for them and the kids that came out, this exciting game doesn’t even happen.”

Lumberton’s late touchdown came after the Pirates (0-3) regained possession trailing 19-12 following a Red Springs touchdown with 3:47 remaining. Michael Pitts returned the kickoff to the Red Devils’ 24-yard line, and a 20-yard pass from Travon Moore to Reggie Bush got the Pirates to the 5-yard line. Facing fourth-and-goal at the 11, Moore scrambled to keep the play alive before finding an open Isaiah Gomez over the middle for a touchdown with 28 seconds to go.

After a penalty moved the line of scrimmage to 1 1/2 yards from the goal line for the two-point try, a Pirates rushing attempt was stopped by the Red Devils defensive front, keeping Red Springs (2-2) in front 19-18. An onside kick went out of bounds and Red Springs kneeled out the clock.

“The play was there, and we had a player error and let a player come through the line and stop us,” McFatten said.

“Our guys just came and stepped up and made the play,” Ray said. “When the ball’s right there at the 1-yard line, a yard and a half, there’s nothing that you really can do to coach that. You just ask the guys to line up and make a ball play, and they did that.”

Lumberton’s drive came after Red Springs scored a touchdown to extend a one-point lead to seven; a bad snap on a punt by the Pirates was recovered in the end zone by the Red Devils, with both Damiren Cooper and Jerrick Thompson both at the bottom of the pile for Red Springs. A two-point try, which would have made it a two-possession game, was unsuccessful.

“We didn’t even have a return guy,” Ray said. “That’s one of those plays you just gamble; we sent all 11 and it worked out for us.”

“Even now, we still see bad snaps, things of that nature,” McFatten said. “We still competed while … beating ourselves. That’s been the theme right now. Once we’re able to stop fighting against ourselves and competing against ourselves, things will be rolling, because we see glimpses, in our passing game, in our running game.”

Scottie Locklear completed just five of his 15 pass attempts for Red Springs, but that included two touchdown passes, accounting for both of the Red Devils’ offensive touchdowns.

“It’s been crazy. Yesterday got shut down, now we’re playing in the rain with no fans or nothing. And we pulled out the win by one point,” Locklear said. “The hitches were there, to T.J. (Ellerbe), he scored easy. And on that slant, I made that read.”

“We run the ball well and a lot of teams try to load the box on us,” Ray said. “So when they load the box, we’ve just got to make simple completions, and when they do that, things happen. He made good reads on both of those touchdowns, and once we get the ball in the playmakers’ hands, they’re able to do some things with it.”

Jakelsin Mack ran for 75 yards on 20 carries for the Red Devils.

Jacoby Pevia rushed 13 times for 123 yards and two touchdowns for the Pirates; Reggie Bush had four catches for 66 yards as Moore was 5-for-9 passing for 77 yards.

Red Springs led 7-6 when the game resumed. Each side began the day with a turnover on downs, and after a Lumberton punt, Locklear connected with Brennan Oxendine for a 6-yard touchdown; the extra-point was blocked and Red Springs led 13-6 with 53 seconds left in the third.

Two Pirates drives later, Pevia broke it for a 49-yard touchdown run with 9:03 left. A two-point try to take the lead was unsuccessful, and Red Springs kept the 13-12 advantage.

Lumberton forced a turnover on downs on the next Red Springs drive, and the Red Devils defense forced the Pirates ill-fated punt which began the end-game sequence.

“We kept our spirits up (late in the game) knowing, hey, we know we can still move the ball, we can do things the right way, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do,” McFatten said. “We can do this the right way if we can get out of our own way.”

When the game began Friday, Lumberton scored on its opening drive with a 16-yard run by Jacoby Pevia; the two-point try failed, making it 6-0 with 8:06 left in the first quarter.

Red Springs turned the ball over on downs on its first two drives before scoring on a 37-yard pass from Scottie Locklear to T.J. Ellerbe with 9:49 to go in the half. The extra-point gave the Red Devils a 7-6 lead.

The Red Devils fumbled the ball to Lumberton at their own 15-yard line, leaving the Pirates in prime field position, but Lumberton fumbled back three plays later at the Red Devils’ 7-yard line. Red Springs then drove as far as the Lumberton 37 before the half expired.

Lumberton, which lost its 15th consecutive game, opens United-8 Conference play next week at Cape Fear. Red Springs travels to Mullins to complete their nonconference slate.