The Parkland High School boys lacrosse team probably got tired of playing Easton at the end of the year, especially in the postseason. The two teams became very familiar with each other during the last month of the year in May. The Trojans and Red Rovers played three times in the month, including twice in the postseason.

Parkland took the regular season matchup in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, winning 13-2. That would be the only victory for the Trojans, however, as the Red Rovers won the next two games when the stakes were higher.

The 11-goal game in the opener would be an outlier as the following two contests were decided by a combined four goals. Easton took down Parkland 8-5 in the EPC semifinal round back on May 9, and then, most recently, got the better of them by a close, one-goal decision, 7-6 in the District 11 Class 3A semifinal round on May 24.

“Easton was playing its best lacrosse late in the year when it mattered most,” said Parkland head coach Mike Bender. “They are a really good and tough team. They played some of their best lacrosse against us and it was just too much for us to overcome.”

The Trojans (15-5 overall) concluded their regular season portion of their schedule winning six of their last seven games overall. But in the playoffs, they went just 1-2. After dropping the EPC semifinal to Easton, Parkland bounced back 10 days later in a big way, defeating Nazareth 15-3 in the district quarterfinal round to set up the matchup in the semifinals with Easton.

“We would’ve obviously liked to have played better in the postseason, but again you have to give credit to Easton,” Bender said. “Both times we played them in EPC’s and districts they were on top of their game. It wasn’t that we played bad because we didn’t. I’m proud of the guys for how they played and how they played all year. We’ll hopefully use this as motivation for next year to get back and win it.”

Parkland will graduate 10 seniors and will look to the underclassmen to push the program back to the top where they have won two of the last four conference titles and two of the last five district championships.

“The seniors meant a lot to our program,” said Bender. “I think we have the talent and experience with who we have coming back to be contending again next year. I’m excited to see this group develop over the offseason.”