The good news for Parkland field hockey is that it qualified for the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference tournament. The bad news is that they it drew top-seeded Emmaus in the first round and lost 4-1.

Sophomore Allie Bianco scored the lone goal for the Lady Trojans with 17:50 left to play.

Back to the good news, Parkland (6-7-1 EPC, 10-8-1 overall) has some time to prepare for the District 11 Class AAA playoffs, which begin next week.

The EPC opener was the third meeting of the season between the two teams, with Emmaus having won each of the other games. Parkland lost 5-1 at Emmaus and 3-0 at home during the regular season. The Green Hornets, who have won 26 straight district titles, are always a difficult draw, especially in the postseason, but Trojan head coach Lizzie Millen worked to keep her players on track with a simple philosophy.

“We played them twice already, so there wasn’t anything that was going to be surprising,” said Millen. “I just told the girls to worry about our play rather than anything that they were going to bring to us and I think that’s what they did today. They played as a unit and it showed.”

Throughout the season, Parkland has shown progress and collected some nice wins along the way. This year’s team came in with a lot of question marks about young players, but those players have improved and reaching the postseason was no small accomplishment.

“The girls are always confident, it’s just a matter of whether or not they are completely motivated to play,” said Millen. “Sometimes, depending on the opponent, we can get either a little too worried or a little too settled, thinking that it will be an easier contest. The girls just have to be mentally prepared to play.”

Even though the team is young, longtime Emmaus coach Sue Butz-Stavin had a lot of good things to say about Parkland.

“They can be a threat on attack, especially on corners, and they’re a great post-finishing team,” said Butz-Stavin. “Grace Royer is a threat and Hannah Daniels does a nice job marking up. They’re always a quality team and a competitive team.

“Brie [Barraco] is an excellent keeper and she comes out on plays a lot, so the time to get her is when she’s down. We just kept battling, but it would have been nice to put a few more points on the board, but a 4-1 win is a great win for us.”

While the odds remain long for districts, the experience that the young players will get playing against the best teams from throughout the area will continue to help their development down the road.

“Once they start playing at higher levels and they know how to compete and they show up for every game, they’ll get stronger and stronger,” said Millen. “I think with maturity, that will all develop.”