First-year head coach Julie Bisci has enjoyed a successful opening campaign in leading a program for the first time in her career. Her Parkland High School field hockey team had won every game that it played in to begin the 2020 season, but then multiple-time defending district champion Emmaus appeared on the schedule.

The Trojans stayed with the Green Hornets for the opening two quarters, but the speed of Emmaus proved to be too much in the final two quarters as the Hornets outscored Parkland 5-0 in that second half on their way to an 8-1 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference victory last Tuesday night at Memorial Field.

“In the first half we let those two, quick breakaways happen, which is a breakdown by our defense and easy for them to score on,” said Bisci. “In the second half, unfortunately, we just got fatigued. I think that we were still making good choices, but we were leaving large gaps between our forward line, our midfield line and our defensive line, and they capitalized on that. We don’t have as many subs available now, so we’re just going to have to build on the conditioning aspect for Friday.”

After a scoreless first quarter, the Green Hornets (9-0 overall) got on the scoreboard first with a goal from Rachel Herbine, the first of her game-high four goals. Less than a minute later, however, the Trojans (6-1) tied the game with a goal from Julia Martin that was assisted by Makayla Brunnabend.

Emmaus went on to score seven straight goals, two of which came in a 3:40 span in the second quarter to take a 3-1 advantage into halftime.

“We’re looking at it as a learning experience,” Bisci said. “The scoreboard doesn’t necessarily depict how we played. I think that we have some really good things that we can build on. I told them think about this tonight, but when you come to practice tomorrow let’s look forward to Friday and look at the positives from tonight and use those.”

Bisci took over the field hockey program earlier this year and has had to deal with uncertainties across the board due to the pandemic, but she has enjoyed leading her team.

“They’ve been awesome,” said Bisci. “COVID has created such a unique situation for all of us as far as this season goes. This was our first true test this year where we got put on our heels. I thought they responded well, but we just got fatigued. I think this will only help us for Friday and next week at districts.”

Tess Garchinsky finished with seven saves.

The two teams meet once again on Friday in the regular season finale at Parkland.