Coming off a highly successful 2021-22 season in which the Parkland boys basketball team finished 21-8 overall and 13-3 in the conference, winning the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and District 11 Class 6A titles, the Trojans are back at it this offseason continuing their winning ways.

The Trojans have won the first eight games of the 2022 Lehigh Valley Boys Varsity Summer League season, sitting in a first-place tie in the standings with Muhlenberg Township.

“Summer has been good for us so far,” said Parkland head coach Andy Stephens. “We’re trying to figure out rotations with losing a couple of starters from last season to graduation. We’ve gotten some guys a lot of good experience here early on and won some games while at it, so I’d say it’s been a successful summer to date.”

Stephens’ teams have always been known to show depth and a knack for good communication. This squad has shown the same so far.

“This team has some good team chemistry from what I’ve seen thus far,” Stephens said. “They all have a great work ethic and really take to coaching. They want to learn and get better every day. They enjoy playing together and winning games is just an added bonus to that.”

Parkland won it’s only game last week, defeating Quakertown 43-34. Matthew Ray led the way for the Trojans with a game-high 14 points.

Ray was a top contributor in the most recent game, but Stephens noted that there have been many others that have taken the reigns and led the team in scoring and other statistical categories during the summer.

“They all have been pretty solid in their playing,” said Stephens. “We’ve had a lot of contributors. I can’t really just pinpoint one or two guys consistently that have stood out. That makes it easy to play a lot of different lineups.”

Parkland played Wilson West Lawn in a summer league game Tuesday before opening up play at the Bash at the Beach tournament at Cedar Beach, beginning Thursday. The Trojans first game is set for Saturday morning against Thursday’s winner of Emmaus and Liberty.

“We want the kids to get stronger and get used to each other and build good rapport with one another,” said Stephens. “This weekend will be another nice test and we’ll get to play quality competition and teams we don’t always see.”

Parkland won the event last year.

Here are scores from last week’s games along with updated standings through games played Thursday, June 16.

Tuesday, June 14

SMALL SCHOOL DIVISION

Roberto Clemente 61 (Syncere Dixon 17), Upper Perkiomen 55

Saucon Valley 75 (Jack Robertson 23), Kutztown 33

Salisbury 51 (Jiro Suarez & Lucas Graver 10), Bethlehem Christian 33

Lehighton 48 (Blake Roberts 16), Catasauqua 36

BIG SCHOOL DIVISION

Pocono Mt. East 52 (Sebastian Fermin 21), Nazareth 42

Wilson West Lawn 65 (Seamus Breslin 13), Palmerton 57

Northampton 67 (Sam Koplin 18), Phillipsburg 57

Reading 51 (Myles Grey 22), Emmaus 49

Muhlenberg 66 (Xzavion Robertson 19), Bangor 43

Southern Lehigh 43 (Jonah Shaw 15), Whitehall 40

Executive Education 34 (Moustapha Sanoh 12), Central Catholic 27

Dieruff 29 (Alexis Rosario and Zajari Tirado 9), Quakertown 26 (OT)

Thursday, June 16

SMALL SCHOOL DIVISION

Kutztown 62 (Andrew Fleming 24), Roberto Clemente 47

Northwestern 57 (Cayden Fitch 14), Saucon Valley 50 (OT)

Lehighton 44 (Blake Roberts 18), Bethlehem Christian 28

Upper Perkiomen 50 (Evan Bosler 14), Catasauqua 40

BIG SCHOOL DIVISION

Whitehall 41 (AJ Hines 12), Emmaus 33

Parkland 43 (Matthew Ray 14), Quakertown 34

Muhlenberg 51 (Eric Branch & Luis Valentin 11), Liberty 30

Nazareth 45 (Cole Dibilio 10), Southern Lehigh 39

Freedom 49 (Josh Washington 17), Easton 31

Notre Dame Green Pond 71 (Zach Rodgers 27), Executive Education 45

Phillipsburg 48 (Matthew Scerbo Jr. 16), Allen 32

Service Electric Big School Player of the Week: Sebastian Fermin, Pocono Mt. East

St. Luke’s Small School Player of the Week: Blake Roberts, Lehighton

Standings

SMALL SCHOOL DIVISION

Team W-L

Northwestern 7-0

Saucon Valley 6-1

Roberto Clemente 5-3

Upper Perkiomen 4-3

Lehighton 4-4

Kutztown 3-3

Catasauqua 2-5

Salisbury 1-6

Bethlehem Christian 0-7

BIG SCHOOL DIVISION

Team W-L

Muhlenberg 8-0

Parkland 8-0

Executive Education 7-2

Freedom 6-2

Central Catholic 5-2

Emmaus 5-3

Northampton 5-3

Notre Dame GP 5-3

Wilson West Lawn 5-3

Pocono Mt. East 4-4

Quakertown 4-4

Reading 4-4

Phillipsburg 3-3

Whitehall 4-5

Dieruff 3-5

Liberty 3-5

Palmerton 3-5

Nazareth 3-6

Allen 1-7

Bangor 1-7

Southern Lehigh 1-7

Easton 0-8