Parkland field hockey coach Lizzie Millen wasn’t very happy with her team’s play through the first 30 minutes of its game against undefeated Moravian Academy Monday night.

By the end of the game though, her players had made Millen very happy when they rallied from a three-goal deficit to beat the Lions 4-3 in overtime.

Moravian Academy (7-0, 7-1) scored three goals in the first half and Millen admitted that while she wasn’t happy with the score, she also wasn’t happy with the effort that her team was putting into the game. Her discussion with the team at halftime was pretty much straight to the point, letting them know that she expected better in the second-half.

“I don’t know if it was readjusting to playing on grass or what was going on, but we just weren’t making plays,” said Millen after her team beat Dieruff 10-0 a day after the win over Moravian Academy. “We talked about what we needed to do and what we expected to see in the second half and they responded.”

Through the first 20 minutes of the second half, the Lady Trojans play was better, but they weren’t able to make a dent in the 3-0 deficit.

That’s when things started to turn around for Parkland. Maddie Molchaney scored twice and Brooke Walker added a goal all in the final 10 minutes of the first half, with the game-tying goal coming with just one second left in regulation.

Molchaney, a freshman, added her third goal of the night to win the game in overtime, handing the Lions their first loss and giving the Lady Trojans their biggest win of the season.

“I think I was prouder of how we battled back from the 3-0 deficit,” said Millen. “They’re [Moravian Academy] a really good team and they did everything right. Our girls really took it upon themselves to turn things around and I’m really proud of the fact that they didn’t give up, they owned their mistakes from the first half and they fixed them in the second half.”

Molchaney, who missed the next night’s game against Dieruff because of illness, has been a bright spot for Parkland this season.

“Our freshmen have really played well, and Maddie had a great game against Moravian,” said senior Grace Royer. “It’s great to see the effort that they’re putting in and how they get better from one game to the next.”

Coming into the season, one of Millen’s goals was to have her team, which is made up of a lot of young and even inexperienced players, be better as the season went along. In the season opener, they lost to perennial powerhouse Emmaus 7-1, but hold the distinction of having been the only team to even score against the Hornets so far this season. Parkland beat Nazareth, tied a tough Northampton team and beat Whitehall prior to the win over Moravian Academy. After pounding Dieruff, the Trojans are 4-1-1 in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and 5-3-1 overall this season.

“I think it’s exciting,” said Royer. “We all want to keep winning and we’re very confident right now, especially with that win over Moravian. We’ve shown that we can beat good teams and we don’t have any reason to get down on ourselves. I think we are seeing what all of the hard work that we’ve put in is doing for us.”

A big test comes Thursday when Parkland travels to Easton (3-1, 4-1) and looks to continue its recent run of good performances against a strong conference opponent.

“We’re excited about it,” said Royer. “We’re confident going in and I don’t think any of us feel intimidated. We’ve put all of that behind us and are ready to make a statement for the program.”

“These girls have done everything that we’ve asked of them and it shows,” said Millen. “We told them that if they worked hard, there was no reason why they couldn’t become one of the better teams in the area and they’ve proven it to themselves.”