Through two holes, Parkland's Chad Hess put himself in a tough position after a pair of bogeys to start his round at Monday's Lehigh Valley Conference Golf Championships at Bethlehem Golf Club.

But Hess, who finished in second place in last season's conference tournament, responded in a big way from that moment forward. He shot even par for the final 16 holes, and his round of 73 earned him a first place finish.

He was able to outlast defending champ Grant Schumaker of Emmaus, who shot a 3-over par 74 for second place this year.

"My driver was doing well for me," Hess said. "I was putting it in play, hitting the fairway, and giving myself the opportunity to go for the greens. That was really the major part.

"I was chasing everybody I was playing with to start off. It wasn't exactly how I wanted to start, but I finished well."

After that initial tough stretch, Hess was able to settle down and produce a solid round that included two birdies, while hitting 15 greens in regulation.

His driving was certainly on point, and despite some tough weather conditions and pin placements, Hess is satisfied with his performance.

"It was tough," he said. "We had the wind to deal with and tough pin positions. It was about survival. Whoever could battle the storm and battle the adversity, they were going to be the champion. And I was happy that was me."

Coming into the tournament, Hess had his eyes set on an even-par round as a goal.

"I really wanted to shoot 71," he said. "After qualifying yesterday at the Lehigh Valley Amateur, I figured something out on the back nine, and hoped I could turn that into a good score today. Seventy or 71 was the goal, one of those two numbers. But I'm not going to be disappointed with a 73."

Hess qualified to be in the LV Amateur's top 64 golfers as the 24th seed.

Hess wasn't the only Trojan who was impressive at the league tournament.

Two other Trojans earned top-10 finishes, and Parkland was able to outlast Emmaus in a tiebreaker to earn the LVC team championship. Nick Shoup finished in seventh place with a score of 77, and Adam Sutovich finished in 10th with a round of 78.

Both teams were tied at 389 after calculating scores of each team's top five golfers.

The tiebreaker was decided by the team'ssixth golfer, which was Parkland's Parker Lessel with a score of 90.

Also for the Trojans, Greg Zahour finished his round with an 80, Brian Cummings shot an 81 and Becca Davis shot a 91.