The Parkland soccer team was hoping to become the first Class AAA boys team to repeat as District 11 Champions since it accomplished the feat back in 2007 and 2008. Unfortunately for the Trojans, that didn't happen as Southern Lehigh, the sixth-seeded team in the tournament, downed Parkland 2-0. The Trojans came in as the second-seed.

With just over 10 minutes gone in the first half, the Spartans' Ryan Fowler took a pass from Alex Sabram and poked it past goalkeeper Evan Bleiler for the first score of the game.

The Trojans tightened up their defense, but Southern Lehigh kept putting pressure on them even though they were unable to put the ball in the net again until there was just 3:18 left in the game. Again, it was Fowler, who took a ball saved by Parkland's Mark Stenske and put it into the net that was left wide open for the insurance goal.

Bleiler made five saves in the game, but his offense was only able to get three shots on Southern Lehigh goalie Ryan Harding, thanks to constant pressure from Southern Lehigh defenders.

"I think tonight, we were outworked, outclassed, outcoached and in every aspect of the game, they just did better than we did," Patrick Birns. "You always say in sports, 'the team that works harder is going to win,' and they outworked us. At some points, I was trying to figure out if they had 12 guys out there, because they were just flying around and they deserved to win that game, hands down."

The win puts Southern Lehigh into the District 11 Finals for the first time since moving up to Class AAA in 2009.

"I know these boys really wanted it," said Birns. "I'm more disheartened for the seniors, because coming and trying to defend their title, I know that's what they wanted to do and not being able to go back and defend their title is a tough one."

The Trojans, who finish the season 16-6, will lose nine players to graduation and it's a group that Birns will have a special memory of because they were freshmen when he took over as the head coach at Parkland. Birns also believes it is a strong group of players who can take some great memories with them as they leave the Parkland program.

The graduating seniors include goalkeepers Bleiler and Dan Szewczak, forwards Diego Martinez and Bronson Strampel, midfielders Ahmad Awadalla and Jon Kleinhenz and defenders Alec Szoldatits, Zachary Trexler and Jon Wenner. As a group, the graduating seniors compiled a record of 67-19-3 with two league titles and one district title to their credit.

"They really had a great run and we talked about it before the game about how a lot of these kids don't play on the same club team now, but they grew up together," said Birns. "They went to kindergarten together. They played their first youth soccer game together, so you try to rekindle that and get that back. We had some really good episodes this year where we played really well and today wasn't one of our best, but they outplayed us today, for sure."