LUMBERTON — It’s not often a loss can turn into a win. But as the clock expired in Lumberton wrestler Jalen Terry-Winston’s loss by 7-2 decision against Hoke County’s Geronimo Oxendine, his Pirates teammate Jackson Buck high-fived assistant coach Teague Little before Little turned to the crowd and implored them to make some noise.

Why? The Pirates knew they’d locked up a team goal.

Terry-Winston’s loss in the 285-pound match, by decision but not by pin, technical fall or major decision, meant that Lumberton was up seven points with one bout remaining in the Pirates’ third-round 4A dual-team playoff match against the Bucks, enough that they could not be caught. With what was ultimately a 37-36 win over Hoke County, the Pirates advanced to the dual-team wrestling regional final for the first time in program history, before falling 41-31 to Laney later Wednesday in that dual.

“The big thing we said was we wanted to do better than last year, get past the third round, and we knew we were going to go against Hoke and they were a pretty tough team,” Lumberton coach James Bell said. “We knew it was going to be close, but we had some guys step up, whether they got the six points or they didn’t get pinned, some guys stepped up for us in a big way, and that got us enough to eke out by one (point).”

Second-seeded Lumberton led 37-27 before the Terry-Winston bout against Oxendine. Terry-Winston was nearly pinned in the first round, catching a good break when time expired in the round allowing him to regroup; he then kept the match alive through the entire six minutes, doing enough to clinch the overall match.

“Them bumping up Geronimo to try and get those extra points against Jalen — tough match for Jalen, but the guy, Geronimo’s trying his best to get Jalen on his back and he couldn’t do it, so that gave us the points we needed to win,” Bell said. “We talked about, you’ve got to step up, you’ve got to rise to the occasion, and he had a tough first period and got put on his back once or twice, getting balled up in the cradle, but after he kind of settled down he weathered the storm, let that energy drain a little bit, you just stay tough and if you weren’t going to win the match, don’t get pinned, and that’s what he did.”

Lumberton started the match against the No. 11 Bucks with a pin by Travelian Hall at 113, over Gabriel Capezudo, and a win by 8-1 decision for Damicquen Powell at 120, over Rainer Schlosser, for a 9-0 lead. After a forfeit and a pin by Hoke County’s Jaylen Bethea over Trenyce Campbell-Bethea at 132, Hoke led 12-9.

The Pirates retook the lead at 15-12 with a Cameron Karshner pin of Gabriel Allen at 138. Hoke County then won the next three matches for a 27-15 lead: Nate Oakes pinned Anderson Brayboy at 144, Arthur Jones won a hard-fought match over Ladarius Page with a 17-12 decision and Cedric Griffin Jr. pinned Dexter Stephens.

But the Pirates won the next four matches to build their lead, including three pins in a minute or less. Matthew Foil pinned Joseph Gaynor at 165, Bryce Ivey won by 14-3 major decision over Orion Becton at 165, James Ellison pinned Timothy Holton at 190 and Jackson Buck pinned Dontrell Mims at 215.

That run, which gave the Pirates their 37-27 lead, came through a stretch of Lumberton wrestlers who were strategically moved up one weight class as Bell tried to make the dual math favor the Pirates.

“We knew we had some guys that we could play with that could move around a little bit, that we could plug guys here, plug guys there to get the points we needed,” Bell said. “The duals are a little bit different; you’re trying to get those six points, or get what you need to get the winning score. We moved some guys around and we tried to shift and give ourselves the advantage and eke out some extra points.”

Oxendine’s win over Terry-Winston gave Hoke County three points before the Pirates forfeited the 106-pound bout to establish the 37-36 final score.

Top-seeded Laney beat No. 12 Cardinal Gibbons in the other third-round match, held simultaneously on the other mat, setting up a dual between the top two seeds in the 4A East Region for the right to go to the state championship dual on Saturday.

Lumberton lost the first seven bouts to the Buccaneers, and despite a late charge from the Pirates’ upper weights the team could not dig its way out of that hole.

“Going into Laney, we knew Laney was going to be tough,” Bell said. “We didn’t win some of those matches down low like we thought we were going to early on, and that kind of started to shift the momentum to Laney. We got the job done in the heavier weights, but those tough losses there at the top, that kind of put us at a disadvantage and gave Laney the match.”

Laney’s Kingston Neal began the dual with a win by 10-9 decision over Powell, then Samuel McQueen beat Campbell-Bethea in a 6-0 decision at 126, giving Laney the 6-0 lead. Laney won the next five matches by fall or technical fall for a 35-0 advantage: Eli Thomas pinned Brayden Hunt at 132, Tyler Buonocore topped Karshner by technical fall at 138, Sam Kopelman pinned Brayboy at 144, Isaiah Wysong pinned Page at 150 and Tristan Cotto pinned Stephens at 157.

Foil at 165 got the Pirates on the board with a 9-1 major decision win over Mac Kopelman, and pins by Ellison, over Holden Walker at 175, and Buck, over Kaeden Smith at 190, cut into the Buccaneers lead, making it 35-16 with four bouts to go.

But Laney’s Mason Blue pinned Lumberton’s Avery McNeil at 215, which gave Laney a 41-16 lead that was mathematically insurmountable for the Pirates and clinched the dual for the Buccaneers.

Terry-Winston pinned Michael Williams in under a minute at 285, Alexander Moody beat Ayden Arrington by 11-5 decision at 106 and Lumberton’s Hall won the last match by forfeit at 113, pulling the Pirates closer in a 41-31 final tally.

Laney will wrestle against West Region champion Davie County in the dual-team state championship Saturday in Greensboro.

While the Pirates’ dual-team season concluded with Wednesday’s loss, the team’s attention shifts to regionals, to be contested next weekend at Panther Creek High School in Cary.

“Now it’s for you; this is the part of the sport that gets really individualistic,” Bell said. “It’s about you bettering yourself to go further into the season, and we’re looking at doing well at the regional so that we can get there to states, and we’ve got some guys that we want to get on the podium. So that’s what we’re going to focus on for the next 10 days.”