The Parkland Trojans had been a thorn in the side of Northampton’s Konkrete Kids until the last minute of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference boys soccer final when Brady Dolak headed in the game winner with 33.6 seconds left to be crowned EPC champions with a 2-1 victory on Oct. 21 at Emmaus High School.

“That was kinda crazy,” Dolak said. “The surroundings, everything. It was crazy. I didn’t expect to even jump that high to get that ball, and it was crazy to even watch it go in.”

Northampton midfielder Jackson Vajda sent the ball downfield on a free kick with less than a minute on the clock.

“I looked at the clock quick and saw that we barely had any time, so I decided to kick it as far as I could down the field, and Brady Dolak had a tremendous game and put it away for the victory,” Vajda said. “I didn’t even really see him, but he was in the right spot at the right time, but he’s a great player, so I knew as soon as he got it, he would finish.”

The K-Kid victory clinched the first boys soccer championship in school history.

“Parkland is always phenomenal, so winning the title feels amazing, but winning the title against Parkland who has been our nemesis and our rival feels great,” said Northampton coach Chris Bastidas. “We know they’re a great team, and it feels great to play the best, though, and to beat the best.”

Not all was smooth sailing for the K-Kids’ in the first half, however, as forward Nicholas Longenbach was helped off the field with a head injury, and forward Delali Tsome was carried off the field with a leg injury moments later.

“First off, my heart goes out to the players. They both had to be taken to the hospital, so I’m just concerned for them so they can get back here because I know they want to be playing. I know they want to be out here, and even if they couldn’t be playing, they’d be here cheering for us, and we wanted to win for them,” Coach Bastidas said.

“On the field, though, it was a huge issue. Delali is absolutely phenomenal and one of the top players in this league and in the state, so to lose a player like him is a super-challenging task. And we’re asking Brady to step up. We put him at the 9, and he scores the game-winning goal so not a bad way to step up. We asked Jackson to play for the 9 a little bit, and he scored a goal.”

Vajda’s goal to the far post in the 61st minute was the first of the match.

“Mason Haupt threw the ball in to me and lucky enough, I got myself in a good position to score,” Vajda said. “I thought whoever scored first would definitely come out stronger, but they countered right back at us, unfortunately.”

In the 64th minute Parkland forward Trevor Grice found the back of the net for the equalizer.

“I wasn’t preparing for the cross, and it took a weird bounce, went off the ball. My team was right there, and they headed it past me,” said Northampton goalie Ethan Schrampf.

Then, as if losing two starters wasn’t enough misfortune for Northampton, the K-Kids had just 10 players in the game for a red card in the last 7:35 of the match.

“Parkland kept pressing and pressing. They got it wide, crossed it in, and our defense did a good job of clearing those in time,” Schrampf said. “ Our defense was top notch tonight. They were the best I’ve ever seen them, and it was a big night. They were phenomenal.”

After Dolak’s goal, all that was left for Northampton was to hold on for a chance to hoist the EPC championship trophy.

“We dropped Brady and Jackson back. He was phenomenal in clearing the ball the entire 10 minutes,” said Bastidas, “and we put Sebastian up to run after the ball and burn the clock. Sebastian makes great runs.”

At the final horn, the K-Kids charged toward Northampton’s student section in celebration of the victory before receiving individual medals and the conference trophy.

Schrampf had 5 saves for the Kids, and Zach Ironside had 9 saves for the Trojans.

“This year, we moved some players around, switched up positions a little bit, and I thought we looked really good today,” said Bastidas. “This was a huge challenge against a great team.”