Having split their two regular season games, Northampton and Parkland came into the Lehigh Valley Conference semifinals very familiar with each other.

During the regular season, the two teams were separated by one goal in each of the games, but Parkland was able to mount a strong effort in the semis and take a 2-0 win over the Konkrete Kids, bouncing them from the LVC playoffs.

The Trojans dominated in the early going, but couldn't put the ball in the net and allowed Northampton to gain some momentum.

The two teams took turns battling for opportunities and went into halftime in a scoreless tie and played another 25 minutes without a goal being scored.

In the next six minutes, though, Parkland would score twice to take a 2-0 advantage and nearly got a third goal on a shot that just grazed the cross bar and went over the net.

Parkland's goals were scored by senior Oliver Guerra and junior Ahmad Awadalla.

"They played pretty much the same way the whole game and it all depended on how we played as to how we fared," said Kids coach Craig Carvin. "As we got our feet underneath of us, we did what we wanted to do and what we had been doing with success and we did better. When we got away from it, then they looked on top of us."

Parkland (13-5, 13-2) came into the playoffs seeded second, while Northampton (13-6, 10-5) grabbed the league's wild card spot and was seeded third, ahead of East Division winner Easton. Emmaus entered as the top seed.

"They outworked us. Our touch let us down today, we were not able to play as clean and as strong as we should and they worked and it was just too much for us to overcome. We had our moments, but eventually, they cashed and we didn't and that was the difference," explained Carvin.

Parkland will now face Easton, who knocked off Emmaus 3-2 in overtime, for the LVC Championship Thursday, while Northampton prepared for the District 11 tournament, which begins next week.

Carvin was disappointed in the loss to Parkland, but believes better games are ahead for his team.

"We can play much better than that," said Carvin of his team's performance against Parkland. "They're a very good team, but I think we can play much better than what we did, so we're not ashamed at all for our effort that it took to get here, but we can do better and we have more in front of us. We still have playoffs next week."