Parkland girls soccer head coach Al Haddad knew exactly what was wrong with his team early on in the District 11 Finals against Stroudsburg and he let them know it. The veteran coach yelled “calm down” to his team from the sidelines about 10 minutes into the game.

His players took the advice and less than a minute after dispensing the two key words that his players needed to hear, Rachel Medlar fired a free kick into the lower corner of the net to give Parkland a 1-0 lead. The Lady Trojans got two more goals and allowed only a last minute strike by the Mounties to take their second straight District 11 Championship with a 3-1 win over Stroudsburg.

Medlar added a second strike from about 15 yards out with 25:25 left in the game to put Parkland up 2-0. Emily Piston added some insurance when she took a pass from Michaela Cohick and found the back of the net, making it 3-0. With their utility players on the field, Parkland gave up a goal with 1:03 left to play making it 3-1.

Even with the win, Haddad wasn’t happy about how his team played, even though they heeded his advice to calm down early on. When asked what he liked about how his team handled playing Stroudsburg, he was very succinct.

“Not much,” Haddad replied. “I think in the first half, there was too much individualism and the girls did not play their style.”

One of the bright spots for Parkland continues to be the play of Medlar, who is a senior.

“Rachel Medlar is an all-state player, that’s why she’s the best player in the league,” said Haddad. “She felt that there was a point in time when she just put the team on her shoulders and carried us through there. Once she got the first one on the free kick, I thought things were going to open up for us a little bit better. The second one broke their backs.”

Both Haddad and Medlar credited familiarity for much of the team’s success this season. The coach noted that he and his staff have worked with the seniors since they were in sixth grade and credited the Parkland club system for helping them to develop as individuals and as a cohesive unit.

“I’ve never been a part of anything like this,” said Medlar. “Especially for us seniors, the 10 of us have been playing together since we were eight years old. It’s incredible to get this gold on our last season together.”

The PIAA tournament has provided some difficult memories for Parkland, but the team won its first state tournament game under Haddad Tuesday night when they were back at J. Birney Crum Stadium and downed Conestoga (16-3-4) by a 1-0 score. The Pioneers dominated play early. Parkland may have bent, but it certainly didn’t break, and with the game scoreless with just over six-minutes to play, it was Cohick who lofted a shot over goalkeeper Colleen Baldwin for her first goal of the season to give Parkland the edge that it needed.

From there, it was just a matter of the Trojans sticking to their strong defensive play and using ball control to ride out the clock to advance to the quarterfinals.

The Lady Trojans will now play Manheim Township, the second place team from District 3, on Saturday. The time and location were not released as of Press deadlines.

The win over Conestoga pushed the team’s record to a perfect 25-0 this season, with 21 of those wins coming via shutout. The win total equals the school record for wins in a season, set by the 1999 team that finished the season 25-1-1.