The Parkland and Emmaus soccer programs are two of the better programs in the Lehigh Valley, so when they get together, great things tend to happen. In their first meeting of the season, the two teams played to a scoreless draw through two overtimes. The second meeting wasn’t much different.

Through the first 73 minutes of regulation, neither team was able to break through with a goal until Emmaus took advantage of a bad bounce and went up 1-0. That lone goal stood up for the Hornets, who walked off their home field with a win.

“There really wasn’t a lot of opportunity there,” said Parkland head coach Patrick Birns. “But I thought in the second half, the boys really listened to the adjustments that we wanted to make and we stopped them from doing what they wanted to do. I felt like we were down at their end most of the time, but one communication breakdown can be the difference in a game like this.”

The breakdown came when goalkeeper Jacob Varrato came out to defend a play, only to have the ball bounce off one of his teammates and right to Emmaus’ Stephen Groh.

The junior forward lofted the ball over Varrato, who was able to get his fingertips on the ball as he raced back toward the goal. Unfortunately for Parkland, the ball bounced away from Varrato and into the net for the lone goal of the game.

“I’m proud of the way the boys played in the second half and the way they made those adjustments,” said Birns. “We dictated what we wanted to do, but we just didn’t come away with a win.”

Birns said that his team really didn’t change much from its approach in the first game between the two teams, but did adjust to a change that the Hornets made. Because of an injury to starting goalkeeper Dylan Sosnow, Emmaus had backup Sam Cho in goal and decided to give him a little extra help by dropping their forwards back. At halftime, Birns made some changes, which worked well.

“We changed things in the second half, because they definitely had changed and they kind of clogged the middle a little bit,” said Birns. “I think we countered pretty well with that in the second half and had some really good looks.”

The rivalry between the two teams is one of the better ones in the Lehigh Valley, but it also allows for the two teams to help raise money for cancer research through their annual Red Card For Cancer events held at both of the team’s regular season meetings. The teams wore identical warm-up jerseys during the pregame, sponsored by FreySmiles Orthodontics. The teams honored Parkland freshman Mary Dalton, who was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma last August.

The two teams are very familiar with each other and many of their players compete together on club teams. The fact that many of the players are friends away from the field makes the rivalry special. For Parkland, the loss to Emmaus was difficult, but Birns said his players handled it well.

“They seemed OK,” he said. “It’s tough, because it’s their friends, their rivals and it’s tough to swallow, but we can move past it.”

Next up for Parkland are the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Playoffs, which begin Saturday. The Trojans’ opponent has yet to be determined.