After a regular season in which the Parkland boys soccer team hadn't lost a game, as well as a heartbreaking loss to Emmaus in the LVC finals, the Trojans were itching to add a championship to their resume.

And, after securing victories over both Whitehall (2-0) and Pleasant Valley (2-0) previously in the tournament, the No. 4 seed Trojans needed to get past top-seeded Stroudsburg in the District 11 Class 3A semifinals to have a shot.

Stroudsburg, however, had other plans in mind. The Mounties - who fell to the Trojans 1-0 back in late September - avenged that early season loss with a 2-1 victory last Thursday at Whitehall Zephyrs Sports Complex and went on to capture the District 11 crown with a win over Emmaus to advance to the state tournament.

"I think any time you lose and you don't come away with a championship, the first thing we think is it wasn't a successful season," said head coach Patrick Birns. "But we hope as coaches there are little life lessons that the boys learn - if it's one or two and each kid learns one it was a success. But on paper it probably wasn't a successful season because we didn't have any championships [and] we didn't walk away with anything."

The Mounties broke a tie game late in the first half that put them ahead for good. Jordon Ellison's corner kick found Liam Cunningham, whose shot was too much for Trojan goalkeeper Jacob Gottwald to handle and gave the Mounties that 2-1 lead with 1:59 to play in the half.

Both teams had chances in the final 40 minutes, but neither could add to their totals after halftime.

"I think if you look at the tape and the way they scored their two goals - it was a great individual effort," said Birns. "Other than that they really didn't have a lot of great looks. They looked just as threatening the first game as they did the second game."

Stroudsburg built a 1-0 lead not even 10 minutes into the game when Bryan Semon fired a shot past Gottwald into the corner of the net.

The Trojans tied it at 1-1 when Dylan Engel found Logan Howell with just over six minutes to play in the opening half. Howell fired a shot to the back of net as the Mounties' goalkeeper was coming out for the save.

"This was the first time I've ever seen, after a goal, a team kind of relaxed," said Birns. "Usually that energized us and that didn't today. It was just that funk. We didn't move the ball so well, [and] we didn't create a lot of opportunities. We just didn't look ourselves today."