The Northampton girls soccer team was the better side in the first half of their game Monday night at Parkland, but they were unable to turn the good play into goals. The Trojans upped their game in the second half and two goals by Isabella Hallal were the difference as they won 2-0.

The K-Kids outshot Parkland 4-0 in the first 40 minutes and had a near miss when Olivia Abrachinsky’s shot at 28:33 got through the keeper but trickled wide.

The Trojans broke the scoreless tie with 14:58 left in the contest when Hallal chipped a ball high over Northampton keeper Emma Fry and into the back right corner of the net.

Fry had made a number of acrobatic saves to that point in the second half to keep the K-Kids in the game, but the Parkland onslaught proved irresistible.

The second goal came less than 4 minutes later, this one a low shot into the left side of the goal.

Head coach Michael Misser shared his thoughts on the game, “I think maybe Parkland wasn’t playing their best in the first half and they made adjustments. I think we did outplay them in the first half and then we had two lapses which we got punished for on the goals and we weren’t able to put’em in when we needed them in the first half. Chances came a lot less in the second half.”

The K-Kids have had a bit of a late season swoon, dropping 3 of 4 to bring their record to 12-4-1 with Wednesday night’s finale against Whitehall occurring after Press deadlines.

“I think maybe with qualifying so early, we got a little ahead of ourselves and felt like some of the games weren’t as important knowing we were already in the tournaments. You want to play your best soccer down the stretch and we’re going to have to figure out some things at practice. We’re still hanging with the best teams; we just need to be able to put goals in the back of the net,” explained Missmer.

To be fair, the losses against Nazareth, Bangor, and Parkland came against teams with a combined 41-6-4 record.

EPCs start Tuesday and the Kids are going to be on the road for the quarterfinals. The official schedule had not been released at press time, but a likely scenario is that Northampton will travel to the loser of Wednesday’s contest between Parkland and Emmaus.