Heading into the 2016 season, Parkland boys soccer head coach Patrick Birns did not know what to expect from his team. They were coming off of an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference title, but a large part of that squad graduated.

Eight seniors left vacancies to fill for a young Trojans roster. What made things even harder was being forced to play the entire year without returning starter and senior captain Justin Evans due to an injury.

But even with the loss of Evans, his classmates stepped up for their teammate. Seniors Conley Hochstetler, Zayer Imam, Zach Imdorf, Aneesh Kapoor, Peter Kwakye-Ackah, Kishan Modessa and Mark Stenske stuck together and kept the winning ways of the program going, helping the Trojans finish with a 17-4-2 record and a berth in the District 11 Class 4A championship game, where they fell to Emmaus in penalty kicks.

“I’m ecstatic about what we were able to accomplish this year,” Birns said. “The firepower that we lost last year, it was hard to think we’d get back to that high level.

“Nobody pegged us to do much this year, but these boys worked hard all year and proved a lot of people wrong. I’m proud of the leadership we had senior-wise, even when we were out-matched in some games.”

Birns noted the district semifinal game against Liberty as one of those games.

The Hurricanes were coming off an appearance in the conference final just a little over a week before, and were riding a lot of momentum. They held a 2-0 lead in the second half, but Parkland battled back, scoring two goals that half and netting a winner in overtime to advance to the final.

Juniors Dawson Berger, Bryce Evans, Owen Iacobelli, Josh Kiser, Andrew Luchansky and Jacob Varrato played huge roles in the success of an undefeated conference regular season record, and will all be back next year in what is shaping up to be another special year for the Trojans and Birns.

“Next year we will have a lot of talent back,” said Birns. “We played more juniors this year than I think we had since I’ve been here. There are a lot of guys coming back that will be experienced in big-game situations and can contribute at a high level for us.”

Stenske and Evans were named to the EPC First-Team, while Modessa was voted to the second-team, and Varrato was a third-team all-star.

The Trojans season ended last week with a 2-1 overtime loss to Conestoga in the first round of the state playoffs.