Last Monday, Oct. 4, the Parkland High School girls soccer team came out flat and experienced its first Eastern Pennsylvania Conference loss, 1-0, to Central Catholic, who currently sits on top of the EPC West Division.

It was just the first defeat in conference and second overall for the Trojans (12-2-1 overall, 11-1-1 EPC). But they were able to follow that up with a dominating 8-0 victory over Dieruff and then a 2-0 win against Northampton last Friday afternoon at Northampton High School.

Parkland head coach Al Haddad was pleased with how his team bounced back after the loss to the Vikettes, particularly against the Kids.

“I felt the team showed a lot of energy and passion,” said Haddad. “We dominated the game in all aspects, especially the second half. We created plenty of scoring opportunities on a very narrow field, which plays into the advantage of the defense. The girls never were threatened in the back, posting their 10th shutout in 14 games.”

Mariana Aubele-Gonzalez scored the game’s opening goal on an assist by Delaney Chilcote to put the Trojans up 1-0 in the first half. Hailey Sammarco capped the scoring in the game off an assist from Olivia Kunz.

Haddad hopes that the recent play of his team will carry over into the final week of the regular season this week and into the postseason.

“Monday is senior night, our expectations are to continue the path that we have been on and play passionately,” Haddad said. “End the regular season on Wednesday with our annual Breast Cancer Game with Emmaus. First touch, speed of play and everything else takes care of itself.”

Parkland defeated Whitehall this past Monday and played Emmaus on Wednesday in the regular season finale. The EPC playoffs begin Saturday.

“I love the urgency of the postseason in that there is no regrouping,” said Haddad. “It is win or go home. There is a very strong parity within the league this season.”

With one game remaining Parkland leads Nazareth (13-2-1) for the top spot in the districts playoffs. The EPC champ will earn the top seed in districts, however if Class 2A Central Catholic wins the league title then district rankings determine the top seed.

Parkland and Easton (12-1-1 in EPC games) could finish tied for the best record in the league and would need a tiebreaker to determine the top seed for the league playoffs.

The Trojans will host a game the first round of league playoffs on Saturday