Last year, all of the talk was about how good the Allentown Central Catholic boys basketball team was. The 2013-14 Vikings went undefeated throughout the regular season, winning league and district championships, and their lone blemish was to the eventual state champion Neumann-Goretti in the PIAA quarterfinals.

Central Catholic defeated Parkland twice last year, but 2014-15 could feature a role reversal with all of the hype around the Trojans.

Parkland (7-0) did not disappoint the big home crowd last Tuesday night with a 58-46 victory over the Vikings.

"It feels good," said Devante Cross. "Central Catholic is a really good team and they got the better of us last year. It was a good game for us because we had to work hard into the fourth quarter and play until the end. They really made us work."

So far through the first part of the season, different players have led Parkland in scoring on different nights. Against Central, it was Cross. The junior had a game-high 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field, 5-7 of which was from 3-point range.

The Trojans as a team shot well from outside the arc. They shot 12-for-22 for three. Cross in particular has improved his jump shot from a year ago through hard work and good competition.

"I just worked hard on my game over the summer," said Cross. "When you keep playing, especially against good competition in the summer like I did, it's going to force you to get better. If I can get better, I can help my team do better. At the end of the day that is what's most important."

Sam Iorio also shot well from 3-point land, finishing with 15 points and three 3's. Kyle Stout and Justin Jones each hit two 3's and finished with six points apiece.

Parkland only attempted two foul shots, and head coach Andy Stephens thought that his team could have tried to get the ball inside more often than ity did.

It hasn't happened often to this point in the season, but the Trojans were in a close battle through four quarters. Central Catholic tried its best to hang around. It was only a 20-17 game two minutes into the second quarter. But after Parkland got three 3-pointers from three different players, the advantage never got less than 11 from midway through the third quarter on.

After returning from the Lower Merion holiday tournament, Parkland has a pivotal East Penn Conference matchup with Emmaus on Friday.