The Parkland High School boys lacrosse team was finally able to exact some revenge on Freedom, the defending District 11 3A champions. The Trojans fell to the Patriots in the district title game last year and the two teams met once again in this year’s district tournament, this time two rounds earlier. Parkland led for most of the contest, but had to hold on late to come out on top against Freedom 18-16 last Thursday evening at Parkland High School. The score was tied 16-16 with a little over four minutes to play, and then Jake Beidleman connected on a shot that found the back of the net a minute later and that proved to be the game-winning goal for the Trojans. Parkland held slim advantages after each quarter, including leading 5-3 after the first, 10-9 at halftime and 14-13 following three quarters of play. It wasn’t always that close. The Trojans had four different leads of at least three goals spread throughout the game, including 6-3, 9-4, 13-10 and 16-13. But the Patriots consistently fought back and stayed in the contest within striking distance of just one goal most of the time. After Beidleman’s tally that broke the 16-16 deadlock, Trojan goalie Andrew Matulevicius, along with the Parkland defense, stepped up and led their team to victory. Matulevicius finished with nine saves. Parker Kusko and Blake Finnegan both ended the night with four goals. Jake Parker and John Gerancher each had a hat trick with three goals. Tyler Smith tallied two goals and Drew Shaffer rounded out the scoring with one. Parker recorded four assists, Kusko and Smith added two and all of Finnegan, Gerancher and Shaffer contributed one assist. The Trojans also then got more revenge, this time against rival and top seed Emmaus in the semifinal round. Danny Tapia scored the game-winning golden goal in overtime to allow Parkland to upset the Green Hornets 10-9 this past Tuesday night at Northampton High School’s Al Erdosy Stadium. Tapia’s goal came with just 48 seconds left in the overtime period. But it was a struggle in the beginning as Emmaus opened the game scoring four of the first five goals and led 4-1 after the opening quarter. Parkland slowly chipped away in the second period with two goals from leading scorer Parker Kusko and one from Jake Parker to trail 6-4 at halftime. The Trojans then took control and earned their first lead of the night as they outscored the Green Hornets 5-2 in the third quarter and were on top 9-8 heading to the fourth. Emmaus tied the score with a goal in the final frame and held the Trojans scoreless to force overtime. Kusko finished with four goals and Parker added three goals and an assist. John Gerancher, Tyler Smith and Tapia all found the back of the net once to round out the scoring. James Scott and Jake Beidleman added an assist each. Andrew Matulevicius made 13 saves in net. Parkland will now meet the third seed, Easton, Thursday night at Lehigh University for the district title.