The Parkland High School girls soccer team has been the class of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference for a little over a decade, specifically when it comes to winning conference championships. The Trojans have earned gold at the top of the conference tournament for 10 of the last 11 seasons and they made it 11 out of 12 this year after running through EPCs last week.

In three games, third-seeded Parkland outscored its opponents 8-1 and gave the top seed, Nazareth, its first defeat of the season in the final, winning 3-0 last Saturday afternoon at Northampton High School.

It’s another year for head coach Al Haddad’s program to hoist the trophy, and he couldn’t be prouder of his team because he knows how hard it is each year with the target on their back.

“Our expectations of ourselves are very high so regaining the league title meant everything to players and program,” said Haddad. “This senior class was determined to help lead us back and it started a week after the season ended last year.”

It wasn’t the easiest this year, or maybe not as easily expected for the Trojans to continue their win streak. They entered the tournament as the three seed and went through two higher seeds to achieve gold. Parkland took down second-seeded Emmaus 1-0 in the semifinal round last Thursday before defeating the No. 1 Blue Eagles.

“I don’t think the girls thought too much about the seeding,” Haddad said. “Having a tie and an OT loss didn’t really separate the top 3 teams so they had a lot of confidence going into the tournament.”

Kennedy Perkins found the back of the net midway through the first half on an assist by Isabella Hallal. The Trojans outshot the Green Hornets 10-6. Keira Shearer and Hanna Hertzog split time in net and each finished with three saves. The defense, along with Shearer and Hertzog, came up big in the most important games so far, pitching shutouts in the semifinal and championship game.

“I feel the defensive play in both second halves was outstanding,” said Haddad. “Against Emmaus, we had a 20 mph wind in our face and against Nazareth we had to face 40 minutes of balls up over the top. Girls fully know that defense wins championships and the collective group of players defended beautifully.”

Parkland earned the top seed in the District 11 4A tournament. The Trojans hosted the eighth seed, East Stroudsburg South, in the quarterfinal round Wednesday evening. The winner will play the winner of the fourth seed, Easton, and fifth seed, Whitehall, in the semifinals Tuesday.