Freedom’s EPC championship run ended last Tuesday when Parkland defeated the Patriots in boys’ soccer, 2-1, at J Birney Crum Stadium in Allentown.

“We have to let it go,” said Freedom coach Matt Reightler. “It was one game. It was a tough loss. Pretty much every loss we’ve had this year has been by one goal.

“I mean, Parkland is one of the best teams out there and we went toe-to-toe with them tonight. We can’t put our heads down. We have to pick them up and move forward because districts will be here before we know it and we’re going to be ready to beat them next time we play them.”

The district tournament will begin at 6 p.m. this Thursday night for the Patriots when they take on East Stroudsburg South at Freedom.

In the conference semifinal, Parkland’s Connor Burke scored within the first four minutes of the game, and the Trojans took the 1-0 lead into halftime.

“We talked about how the goal they got was a mistake on our part. It happened early. We still had plenty of time to go,” Reightler said. “And we discussed how we weren’t really playing our style of play. And when we did play our game in the first half, we had some stretches that were dangerous, that were good, and if we could get back to that, we could fight back in this game.”

The Trojans scored another early goal when Josh Kiser made it 2-0 after a free kick within the first six minutes of the second half.

“It put us more on the back foot. It enabled them to get their second goal which put this up to a two-goal game and it started to raise tempers a little bit. It affected us,” said Reightler.

With 22:43 left on the clock, Freedom forward Brad Turocy scored to pull the Patriots within one. Minutes later, Turocy almost repeated but the save was made for Parkland.

The Trojans went on to become conference champs after a 2-1 victory over Emmaus last Thursday.