The last week of the regular season was a challenging one for the Parkland High School boys soccer team.

The Trojans headed into that week undefeated and rolling along, but then a little bit of adversity came along, the first time all year for the program.

After winning their first 13 games, a condensed schedule and some nagging injuries got to the Trojans in October. Parkland was forced to play five games in a span of seven days, and one of those games turned into the team’s first loss in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, a 2-1 setback to Nazareth. The Trojans had a 0-0 tie at Spring-Ford.

Head coach Scott Mang knew what his team was put up against and is proud of how they pushed through it.

“The end of the season was brutal for us,” said Mang. “We had five games in seven days against five excellent teams in Emmaus, Liberty, Whitehall, Nazareth and Spring-Ford out of District 1. We had to be very creative when putting together a lineup for each game, but the boys were prepared and ready for the moment.”

The Trojans still clinched the top seed in the EPC playoffs. In the quarterfinal round last Saturday, Parkland was taken into overtime and pulled out a 2-1 victory over the eighth seed, East Stroudsburg South. It was not what they really expected in the opening game of the postseason, but they took care of business.

“The East Stroudsburg South game could have gone either way, but honestly we got very lucky to survive,” Mang said. “Jack Maier scored our first goal off a set piece assist from Sean Wood. We were up 1-0 with about two minutes left in the second half. ESS never quit and they drove the ball into the box and their forward hit a beautiful side volley into the top shelf of the goal. In the first overtime, they hit the post, so we got a little lucky and escaped the first overtime period. Then Douglas Martinez hammered home the game winner off a beautiful assist from Josh Daniels.”

It was once again another team effort out of the Trojans and the program is excited to win and advance, even if it was in nail-biting fashion.

“What stood out is that our boys never quit,” said Mang. “Another day, another way. I think we are getting healthy and excited to see what we can do for a run in the EPC and District 11 playoffs.”