LUMBERTON — Forgive Lumberton coach Kenny Simmons and his Pirates if they needed directions finding Alton G. Brooks Stadium Thursday night.

After playing its first four games away from home, Lumberton finally stepped onto the field as the home team in 2010.

Unfortunately, the home turf was not kind as East Bladen stopped the Pirates 2-1 in a non-conference soccer clash.

"I thought we were flat in the first half," Simmons said. "We didn't have any enthusiasm or energy."

The Eagles (3-0-2) took advantage of the lackluster performance to push across the first goal of the contest in the 27th minute. East Bladen's Blake Clark header off a corner kick by Israel Evans sneaked into the upper left corner of the net.

Lumberton's best chance to score in the first half came just moments after Clark's goal. East Bladen was called for a handball and gave the Pirates (1-2-2) a free kick. Connor Haskins' shot was pushed aside by Cliff Koenig.

The Eagles added to their margin just seven minutes into the second half. Evans took a feed from Patrick McCullum and sent a shot past P.J. Monteiro for a 2-0 lead.

"That's not the way you want to start the half, going down 2-0," Simmons said. "I knew we would make a run and we did. We just got unlucky, but I thought we showed a little better in the second half, we had more fight."

The Pirates responded just two minutes later when Jennings Johnson took a pass from Steven Kirby and blistered a shot into the left corner for a goal.

"When you get the second goal, you put pressure on the other team," East Bladen coach Ray Cross said. "But in no time, the cut it back to a single goal game."

Lumberton had several chances to score in the waning moments of the game, but were unable to get a shot on goal.

"Any minute I thought the ball was going to pop in the back of the net," Cross said. "Kenny has some really good players, we were fortunate to come out on top."