It has been a tough start to the 2012 season for the Parkland field hockey team. The Trojans have lost four out of their six games by two goals or less. After a win last Saturday against Freedom - their first LVC victory - the Trojans put up three second half goals to defeat Becahi two days later at Parkland High School.

"It was a tough one today," said first-year head coach Michelle Steele. "Monday games are always tough after a weekend game. We played hard on Saturday, but came out slow today. The communication just wasn't there. We were definitely playing slower than normal."

As Steele stated, the Parkland offense struggled to get any momentum in the first half. The Trojans mustered only three shots on goal and tallied three corners.

Whatever Steele said in the halftime speech, it worked. The Trojan offense came out firing nine shots on goal and notched seven corners after the intermission.

Taylor Breinich knocked back a shot off a rebounded effort from Brooke Benedict with 13:23 left for the first Parkland goal.

Less than a minute later, sophomore Hannah Pany was at the right place at the right time, when she ripped a rebounded shot past Meaghan Roszyk.

Lauren Brannan finished off the scoring for the Trojans, off a pass from freshman Maddie Pope with 2:52 remaining and a 3-0 advantage.

"The biggest thing for us is our inexperience," said Steele. "We lost two impact players last year to Division I, and because of that so much was relied on them. Coming out this year I really enforced 11 girls working together as a team. They really just need to step up and find themselves and figure out the strengths of this team. They're starting to step up and work nicely together."

Parkland (4-6, 2-5) now rides a two-game conference winning streak into matchups with Allen and Central Catholic.