ROCKY RIVER, Ohio -- The Rocky River Pirates are on a scoring surge. The Pirates netted six goals -- five in the game's second half -- as Rocky River defeated Lutheran West, 6-0, on Thursday.

Five Pirates planted goals in the Rocky River Stadium victory over the Longhorns (9-5). For Rocky River (8-4), the victory marked the team's third in a row. Over their last five matches, the Detroit Road Buccaneers have found the back of the net 29 times.

"This really was a tale of two halves," said River bench boss Kevin Zerbey, whose squad broke a scoreless tie 31 minutes in and then broke the game wide open with two scores over the first 10 minutes of the second stranza. "We had to work really hard in the first half because what Lutheran West was doing was complicating our game plan. After halftime, we kept working hard, but we went about it differently than in the first half: more one- and two-touch passes, more trying to drive through the middle before playing the ball wide."

River's first-half goal was scored by senior Michael Triplett, who was the last flipper in a pinball play that featured a shot from Chase DeClerck, a batted ball by the Longhorns 'keeper, and a carom off the crossbar.

The Rocky River neighbors battled that 1-0 score to the 47th minute when junior Hogan Kern hammered home a tight-angle shot after a pass from Gold Rrustemaj and an artful dribble past a Lutheran defender. Kern's fourth of the year gave River a 2-0 lead.

The Pirates would add to that advantage three minutes later when sophomore Nathyn Marius rifled in a 35-yarder to collect his third goal of the season.

The rest of the way it would be all-Pirates, with Jack Maher (from Rrustemaj and Jack Bowers) scoring once and Gold Rrustemaj (on feeds from Charlie Russell and Maher) scoring twice. The final goal for Rrustemaj marked the 30th point of his career. The junior talent has netted five goals over River's last two matches.

Over those last two contests, Rocky River has scored 17 goals as a team; that marks the program's most in back-to-back games since before 2004.

Junior goalkeeper Ian Tomsik registered three saves in what marked Rocky River's third shutout win overall and fifth on the season.

"Our guys earned this win and are now on a nice streak," said Zerbey. "But we'll have to play better than this in the games we have coming up. That includes this Saturday night."

The Pirates will host the Tigers of Chagrin Falls High School Saturday at 7 p.m.