LUMBERTON — You can’t win without scoring a goal. But you can’t lose without allowing one.

Thursday, the Lumberton and Gray’s Creek girls soccer teams played for 100 minutes with no ball finding the back of the net, ending in a scoreless draw after a defensive battle throughout both halves and both 10-minute overtime sessions.

“Definitely our defense had to be really locked in tonight,” Lumberton senior defender Chloe Hammonds said. “We knew we were going to play a very tough team, but we came out here with that tenacity, that hunger, that fierceness — we were ready to play them.”

The game was largely played in the middle third of the field, with few scoring chances for either side. Lumberton (3-2-3, 0-2-2 United-8 Conference) played its third scoreless draw of the season and its second in as many games, shutting out an opponent for the sixth time in its first eight games.

“We’ve done great all season long defensively, minus one game where we did let up five goals, but other than that we’ve been lights out defensively,” Lumberton coach Ethan Freeman said. “I’ve been proud of the effort; defense is a lot of effort, and our girls have put in the effort every game, to keep those shutouts and keep those scores pretty low. Going forward, I think that’s going to benefit us late in the season.”

The knack for playing low-scoring games means the Pirates have been in tense situations in close games late several times this season, with six games decided by two goals or less.

“It’s definitely very intense, especially going into overtime like we have been,” Hammonds said. “But we definitely don’t take that as a loss, we take that as we’re going to come back again and do even better the next time, so next time practice, Monday we’re going to work even harder and get our offense right.”

Offensively, Lumberton has scored nine goals in eight games, and has not scored since the first half of Saturday’s game against Red Springs, with the 40-minute second half of that game and two additional 100-minute matches having elapsed since.

“We have chances, and we do create a few chances here, but sometimes it’s just that final pass, one touch, or just something that we’re missing,” Freeman said. “Sometimes we’ll have a nice buildup play and something will happen towards the end and we’ll just lose it. We work on it every practice and try to get a little bit better.”

Lumberton’s best offensive chance in Thursday’s game came with nine minutes left in the second overtime period, when a would-be go-ahead goal was negated by an offsides call.

“It seems like we do everything right to a certain point and then something happens, and in that situation, getting the offsides late, maybe a little bit questionable, but the girls were really pushing hard the last 10 minutes,” Freeman said.

Gray’s Creek (3-2-1, 2-1-1 United-8) created a few more scoring chances, but the Pirates defense held, including on two free kicks and a few corner kicks throughout the contest. Lumberton goalkeeper Miracle Gonzalez had a clean sheet.

“Miracle, she’s always on point,” Hammonds said.”She knows what to do, when to do it, all the time, she’s always in the right place at the right time, so we’re very proud of her for always having our back like that.”

While the Pirates would’ve naturally preferred to win, the draw helps from a conference standings standpoint.

“I think overall it was a good result for us tonight, and Gray’s Creek played well as well, and I tell the ladies one of our goals is in the top half of the conference, and we have to pick up points,” Freeman said. “Although getting a tie may not be exactly what we want, it’s getting points and moving forward.”

With the Robeson Cup championship postponed from Saturday to April 13 due to the threat of inclement weather, the Pirates will return to action on Tuesday at home against Douglas Byrd.