The Parkland High School girls soccer team capped an undefeated regular season last week with a 1-0 victory over rival Emmaus, its closest game in almost a month. The win capped an unbeaten regular season with an 18-0 overall record, 16-0 in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. Two days before that win, the Trojans defeated Nazareth 5-1 giving them another victory over a team in the top-five in the conference.

Head coach Al Haddad was happy to have a pair of competitive games to round out the regular season portion of the schedule. His team actually fell behind the Blue Eagles and had to make a comeback.

“It was nice to get two quality games to end the season with Nazareth and Emmaus,” said Haddad. “Both teams are well coached with quality programs and players. The response on senior night against Nazareth being down 1-0 was fantastic. We look to be able to respond to adversity within 10 minutes. It was the first time we were behind this year and the response with a goal by Olivia Kunz in 22 seconds was powerful. It lifted the team and the following response of four more goals was great.

“The Emmaus game was a battle. We played a far better second half but left them in the game, not finishing on chances that could have made the final 20 minutes easier. But our players played a great defensive half and they were excited to end the season undefeated.”

Parkland earned the top seed in the East Penn Conference playoffs. In the quarterfinal round last Saturday afternoon the Trojans defeated Pocono Mountain East, the eight seed, 8-1.

“Pocono Mountain East was a game you try to get the players to forget the first time you played them, a 10-0 win on the first game of the season,” Haddad said. “We got a goal to go up and then ignored a player that broke through and they found themselves tied 1-1. Although up 4-1 at half, they were not happy with their performance and completely shut down PME in the second half while getting another four goals.”

With multiple goal scorers on offense and a defense that remained stout in their first postseason game, Haddad noted that, just like the entire season, it’s been a team effort all year.

“The girls share the ball with the focus of making the player next to them the hero,” said Haddad. “When they do that, the ball finds all the players, all the players contribute and the team ends up doing well. We are fortunate that we don’t ever rely on any one or two players, which makes it very difficult to defend us. There were 17 of 20 field players that scored this year, while 19 of 20 have an assist. We scored 101 goals so far and our leading scorer only has 16, so you can see how much the wealth is passed around.”

Parkland later defeated Easton 4-0 in the semifinal round and will take on the Green Hornets in the championship on Saturday afternoon.