Parkland High School girls soccer head coach Al Haddad had the mindset at the beginning of the day that he was going to start all nine of his seniors, with the intention of having all nine score goals. Mission accomplished as each senior found the back of the net in a 9-0 win over Allen last Monday evening in an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference match at Parkland.

The seniors were Teresa Gonzalez, Katey Kunz, Emma Schock, Maddy Amadio, Zuzu Mohamed, Alex Marsteller, Abby Lytle, Jocelyn Fowler and Maeve Leonzi.

It was a nice send off for the seniors, some of which never get a good chance to score goals.

“I play center back so I don’t normally get the chance to score,” said Lytle. “It felt great to be able to score today, and just seeing all of the other seniors being able to score was really nice.”

Gonzalez and Kunz are actually goalies who started each half as forwards, giving the duo the opportunity to net their first career goals.

Mohamed, who can be found running up and down the sides of the field, was just happy to be back out playing with her team after having to miss some time due to quarantine following a family member getting sick.

“I had to miss three weeks of soccer due to quarantine from a family member that had it,” said Mohamed. “It was tough missing the first two games and practice time, getting back into playing shape and gelling with the team. The summer made all of the difference since we were able to do individual workouts. We did jobs and weight lifting and stuff to keep in shape.”

All of the Trojans are just happy to have a season.

“I have friends at other schools that aren’t actually even playing right now,” Lytle said. “So, I don’t take playing lightly, even if it is just a few games. You can’t take any game for granted and go out and give it your all. We all work hard every day and play like it’s our last game.”

Parkland, which moved to 5-0 overall, scored five goals in the first half and four in the second half. The game was mainly about finding the seniors a way into the score column, while moving the ball around the field and improving passing, while getting a number of players time on the field.

“This game was tough in that we had to stay controlled and fight the urge to want to push the pace and score goals,” Mohamed said. “We wanted to use this game to prepare for the Emmaus game, which will be very competitive. We wanted to play at a fast pace and complete our passes all around the field to move the ball. We had to find advantages to this game and use them.”

Parkland has two games against Dieruff next week before closing out the regular season the following week.