Parkland boys soccer coach Patrick Birns has kept in touch with an old high school friend, Owen Finberg, who now heads up the soccer program at South Kent School in Connecticut. South Kent is the defending High School National Champions and Finberg is the reigning national Coach of the Year.

The two old friends met once before as coaches when Finberg was the coach at West Nottingham Academy in Maryland. In that previous meeting, Birns got the best of his old buddy with a win, but this time around, it was Finberg evening the slate when South Kent beat Parkland 2-0.

“Maybe we’ll need a rubber match to figure this out,” said Birns. “We’re old friends and it’s great to see what he’s been able to accomplish and he’s deserving of every bit of it.

“This was also a great opportunity for our players to go up against competition like this, because you won’t see a better team than the one we played today.”

The South Kent roster includes players are from. Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ghana and Bermuda just to name a few. Alex Adjetey scored both of the Cardinals’ goals in the game.

“I’m actually very proud of our defense, because this is a great offensive team and they showed how good they are with their passing and how they set up plays,” said Birns. “Our defense has been very good this season and they were very impressive today, holding these guys to just two goals.”

The loss to South Kent is the only real blemish on Parkland’s record this season, which stands at 5-0-1 in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and 5-1-1 overall.

The Trojans had won five straight coming into their game against South Kent after opening the season with a scoreless tie against Emmaus. Since that opener, Parkland has outscored opponents 18-4, including a 1-0 win over Freedom on Monday.

Against Freedom, Owen Iacobelli scored the only goal of the game, his second of the season. Parkland’s offense has come from players up and down the roster, with 10 different players scoring for the Trojans.

Tsegaye Geiger and Peter Kwakey-Ackah are the leading scorers with three each on the season.

“We’ve gotten contributions from up and down the lineup,” said Birns. “We stress moving the ball around and looking for the best opportunities and we’ve done well at getting the ball to the right player in the right situation.”

Parkland is leading the Skyline Division, with Emmaus (4-0-2, 4-1-3) and Central Catholic (4-1-1, 6-1-1) doing their best to catch the Trojans. Emmaus and Central Catholic will each get one more shot at Parkland during the regular season. Parkland beat the Vikings 2-1 in their first meeting.

“We finish the season with tough games in our division and we have a lot of soccer to play between now and then,” said Birns. “So we have to keep building on what we’ve done and can’t let down.

“Right now, we’re playing very well and I think having played these guys [South Kent] shows our team where we can improve, but overall, we’re playing very well. We’ve found some offense, but I’m especially happy with how our defense has come around for us.”