Freedom’s boys soccer team had just come off an emotional high with a semifinal victory on PKs to take on Parkland in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference final on Oct. 24.

“Everything was in control,” said Freedom coach Farid Bayramli. “You know, I felt that way.”

But after holding a 2-1 lead for most of the second half, Parkland’s Javan Roustic hit the top of the net for the equalizer.

Two minutes later, Ethan Frey’s goal gave the Trojans a 3-2 lead and ultimately, the win.

“I don’t have any complaints on my team whatsoever,” said Coach Bayramli. “This is the game. It could go either way- this way or another way, you know?”

Freedom’s Evan Plasco, who had the winning PK to beat Emmaus in the conference semifinal, scored the first goal of the conference final.

Alex Hurwitz then tied the match for Parkland on a penalty kick.

For the next 25 minutes, Freedom’s Mason Duzant, Angel Gaviria, and Luke Twiggar held the Trojans on defense.

Parkland made four consecutive attempts to score as Freedom goalie Ben Rodriguez made two saves in the flurry, and Thomas Fairbairn cleared the ball before it was booted away

With 30 seconds left in the first half, Freedom’s free kick found Fairbairn whose goal put the Patriots ahead, 2-1, at halftime.

“Everything is good, 2-1,” said Bayramli, “and then that goal (of Roustic’s). Even in the break, I just talked 10 minutes about that area. You have to press that ball there because it’s the open area. They have two players all the time in that pocket always, and we can see it from there because I think they believe nobody’s going to score from that area, but you don’t know. So that’s the one mistake that gave us that result. Just one mistake. This is standard defensive midfielders. They didn’t press that ball up.”

Plasco attempted a header on a pass from Liam Curtin in the second half, and the Pates had an opportunity on a free kick with 1:35 remaining, but when time expired, the Trojans claimed the conference championship.

“I’m very proud of my team. They really, really played good,” Bayramli said. “The problem is we don’t have recovery time. They’ve got to figure this out. I think they should take more responsibility about the players’ safety because the three playoff games in one week with one day recovery, that’s very hard for players to recover, and that’s why I’ve already got three injured players. They’ve got to give the final four maybe a week so they can feel good.”