In the first half of the field hockey game between Whitehall and Parkland on Tuesday, it looked like the Trojans were going to overwhelm the Zephyrs with offensive pressure.

It seemed that goalkeeper Mackenzie Holubowski was constantly surrounded by a sea of gray and red as Parkland sent 18 shots in the direction of her goal.

The Trojans scored the opening goal on a penalty stroke just a minute and a half into the contest.

They had a second goal disallowed seven minutes later, but wound up notching another score within two minutes.

They scored their third goal with 11:30 left in the half and took a 3-0 lead into the break.

Whitehall started the second half with more energy and the effort finally paid off when Allie Cook rolled the ball past the goalie’s right side six minutes after intermission.

Parkland golfed a shot into the goal at the 16:48 mark to reestablish the three-goal margin of 4-1.

On the Zephyrs’ third corner of the night, Emma Bonshak took a pass from Maddie Trocki and beat the Trojan keeper to make the score 4-2.

Whitehall managed to generate two more corners, but no more goals as they had to settle for the moral victory of having won the second half.

Head coach Jennifer Bodnar evaluated the outcome.

“We’re obviously never happy with a loss,” she said. “But I’m super proud of the girls’ efforts especially in the second half. This is the kind of grit and determination that we’ve been trying to get out of them the whole season.”

While the loss dropped Whitehall to 1-4 on the season, the record is a bit deceiving because the Zephyrs have played four of the toughest teams in the EPC: Emmaus, Easton, Pocono Mountain East, and Parkland, right out the gate.

Bodnar thinks the tough start can pay dividends down the road.

“We definitely learned a lot of lessons,” she said. “We can take small victories from these games. I think we need to get a couple of good wins under our belt and I’m fully expecting us to make a big run here.”

The Zephyrs’ upcoming schedule features road games against Salisbury on Friday and Nazareth on Saturday. The Falcons are on the 2-3 on the season having lost to the top-three teams in the Colonial League.

The Blue Eagles are 2-4 and have their own 4-2 loss to Parkland. Whitehall then hosts Pleasant Valley on Tuesday. The Bears are 1-5 on the season and lost to Parkland 11-0.