After playing two regular season games that both resulted in ties, Parkland and Emmaus knew that wouldn’t happen when they met for the District 11 Championship at J. Birney Crum Stadium, thanks to the presence of penalty kicks that decide playoff games if two overtime periods aren’t enough.

As might have been expected, the two sides played to a scoreless tie through 110 minutes of soccer, leaving the championship trophy hanging in the balance of a best-of-five penalty kick phase that Emmaus won 4-2. The official score goes down as a 1-0 loss for Parkland, who had already qualified for the PIAA Tournament by reaching the district finals.

After having their first penalty kick blocked by Emmaus goalie Dylan Sosnow, Kishan Modessa and Dawson Berger hit on back-to-back attempts to tie the kicks at 2-2. Emmaus’ Stefan Zarkov made it 3-2, with Owen Iacobelli up for Parkland.

Again, Sosnow was up to the task and blocked the shot, leaving the potential winning shot up to Dakota Bauer of the Hornets.

Bauer and goalie Jacob Varrato stared each other down and Bauer struck a shot that Varrato dove after, but couldn’t reach as Emmaus celebrated the win.

“It was a great game. You can’t ask for better, especially in this situation,” said Parkland head coach Patrick Birns. “We had some chances in regulation and so did they. It’s a shame to lose a game like this in PKs, but that’s how they have to be decided.”

As Birns said, both teams had opportunities to change the scoreboard during the game, but both Varrato and Sosnow came up huge.

Varrato was credited with six saves on seven shots on goal, while the Trojans also put seven shots on goal. The shots don’t tell the whole story, as both teams relied on their defenders to break up opportunities for the other team.

In all, the two teams played 315 minutes of soccer between their two regular season games and the district championship, with just two goals being scored. The season-opener between the two rivals concluded in a scoreless tie, while a meeting later in the season ended 1-1.

Parkland (17-4-3) came into districts as the number-two seed and beat seventh-seeded Pleasant Valley and third-seeded Liberty to advance to the finals. The tournament’s top-seed, Stroudsburg, lost to Emmaus in the semifinals.

“We’ve had a great season and this doesn’t really end anything, since we move on to states now and we get another shot there,” said Birns. “Our seniors especially, deserve to keep playing, so we’ll pull ourselves up and get right back to work.”

Unfortunately for Birns and his players, the PIAA tournament wasn’t kind to the Trojans as they drew a game against Conestoga (22-1), the second place team out of District 1 and had to go on the road to Downingtown to play the game. The Pioneers got a goal from Chris Donovan in overtime to give them a 2-1 win over Parkland and a spot in the state quarterfinals, which will be played Saturday.

Iacobelli scored Parkland’s goal against Conestoga.

Parkland loses eight seniors from this year’s team, including Conley Hochstetler, Zayer Imam, Zach Imdof, Aneesh Kapoor, Peter Kwakye-Ackah, Gunnar Litz, Modessa and Mark Stenske.