When Parkland and Northampton met during the regular season, it was a physical game in Northampton (18-2-1) that Parkland won 3-1.

This time around, in Saturday’ Eastern Pennsylvania Conference title game, the match was every bit as physical and the Konkrete Kids suffered injuries to two of their top players, knocking both of them out of the game.

Then, a third player was given a red card that took him out for the rest of the game and left the Kids playing a man down for the final seven minutes.

Somehow, Northampton was able to overcome the losses and down Parkland 2-1 to win the EPC championship at Emmaus’ Memorial Field.

Seniors Nick Longenbach (head) and Delali Tsome (knee) left with injuries in the first half. As Northampton looked to regroup, the game went to halftime scoreless. The physical play continued in the second half and in a span of four minutes, Northampton was given three yellow cards. The first was to Antonio Del Priore, who was followed by a yellow card to league MPV Jackson Vajda and the third was given to the Northampton bench for arguing calls.

Just past the midway point of the second half, the Kids were back to full strength and Vajda was able to find just enough of an opening to give Northampton a 1-0 edge. The goal was the 113th of Vajda’s career, which makes him the all-time leading scorer in the combined history of the old LVC and the current EPC conferences.

Parkland continued to battle for the game tying goal but were turned away on a couple open looks. Rather than hoping to find a better opening, senior Trevor Grice put up a long-range missile and placed it perfectly, getting it to bounce off the bottom of the crossbar and into the goal, knotting the game at one.

With 7:35 left in the game, Del Priore pulled down a Parkland attacker and was given a red card for the infraction. The penalty meant that he was ejected from the game and will also have to sit out the first game in districts. It also meant that Northampton had to play the remaining way a man down. As a result of the injuries and the ejection, Vajda was shifted to a more defensive position by Northampton coach Chris Bastidas.

Just :08 after the ejection, it appeared that Northampton was already hurt by its shortage of manpower as the Kids picked up what appeared to be the go-ahead goal. However, the referee called a push on a Parkland player and waived off the goal, keeping the score tied 1-1.

With just :18 left in regulation, the move of Vajda to defense paid dividends as he delivered a long pass into the Parkland backfield that classmate Brady Dolak was able to chase down. As goalkeeper Zach Ironside came out to defend the play, Dolak headed the ball past Ironside and into the goal to give the Konkrete Kids a late lead.

The conference championship for Northampton is the first in the school’s history and vaults them to the number one seed for districts. The Trojans (18-3-0) will be the three seed and will play sixth seeded Pleasant Valley (12-7-0) in the district quarterfinals.

While Vajda was given the league honor as MVP and teammate Tsome was named to the first-team all-stars, Parkland had three players – Luke Blenis, Sam Masenheimer, and Caleb Daniels – named to the team.