One week ago, Parkland’s Isabella Hallal was named the EPC MVP after scoring 22 goals in the regular season for the Trojans.
In Saturday afternoon’s EPC Championship hosted by Northampton High School, the senior forward showed why with a spectacular first-half goal and an assist to Kennedy Perkins that proved to be enough to lift the third-seeded Trojans past top-seeded Nazareth 3-0.
“Honestly, it was a great honor to get the MVP award, but what really matters to me is winning EPCs with my team and bringing back what we know we were able to get last year, but just fell short of,” Hallal said. “Being able to help my team get that meant a lot to me because I didn’t want to be the reason we didn’t win this game, but as long as we won the game, it was fine with me.”
The Blue Eagles provided much of the early pressure, but it only took one opportunity for Hallal to leave her mark. The East Stroudsburg University commit received a ball from her right under pressure, lost her defender with a drag-back onto her left foot and blasted a shot that ricocheted off Nazareth senior Olyvia Hall into the bottom-right corner.
“I work a lot on being able to shoot with either because obviously people would pick up when I’m just shooting with my right. It’s a little bit harder to defend when I have both feet,” Hallal said.
Almost exactly eight minutes later, she played a role in doubling Parkland’s advantage.
The Trojans won a throw-in deep down the left sideline and delivered it to their star forward who posted up a defender and nudged it along toward Kennedy Perkins who did the rest. The junior midfielder added to her big postseason, after scoring the decisive goal in Thursday’s semifinal against No. 2 Emmaus, with an incredible curled effort off her right foot into the top right corner.
“We always work on Bella playing the ball back, finding her midfielders, and then when she was sitting in, I just went off her touch…I trust her with everything,” Perkins said. “When I hit it, I didn’t think it was going to go in. I think I leaned back too much, but then it was good to see it go in.”
Longtime coach Al Haddad’s group wasn’t done yet. With more than 10 minutes still to go in the opening half, his backline that performed so well throughout the contest combined for a third goal that all but sealed the league championship before halftime.
Senior outside back Adrianna Rizzotto delivered a perfect corner kick just outside the six-yard box where Jummai Umaru powered a header past first-team all-EPC goalkeeper Emma Houchin who didn’t stand a chance on any of the three first-half goals.
“Before the game, me and Adrianna, we like to do long balls, and I kind of just read how she kicks them and where they end up, so I knew on that corner kick it would end up near the back post, and I just ran through it,” Umaru said.
The Trojans scored two of the only eight goals Nazareth conceded all season going into Saturday’s contest and now account for nearly half of the goals against the now 19-1-1 Blue Eagles all season.
Although the first two goals only resulted in a 2-2 tie midway through the regular season, Hallal can’t pinpoint why her team’s been able to have so much success against the third-ranked 4A team in the state according to the PSCA Coaches Poll.
“It’s a relief, because we all kind of came into this game stressing a lot about it, but we just know what we can do,” Hallal said. “We just needed to calm down, get those three in the back of the net, and then from there, it’s just smooth sailing. Honestly, now, it just feels great.”
The league MVP is also one of seven Parkland seniors who erased the dark memory of losing a nine-year streak of EPC championships in a 3-1 loss in the title game to Allentown Central Catholic last year. By the looks of the dominance on Saturday, it could be the start of another dominant streak for the Trojans who will return six starters next season.
“I think that loss has been in the back of all of our heads, and it’s something that we’ve worked all summer to get back at,” Umaru said. “Today, we showed our drive and our need to prove ourselves again, so I think that motivated us a lot.”
Up next
Parkland (17-3-1) will now enter the District 11 4A Tournament as the top seed in the 4A bracket, hosting No. 8 East Stroudsburg South (8-10). The Trojans defeated the Cavaliers 3-0 early on in the season in their only previous matchup.
Nazareth (19-1-1) will drop to the second seed to take on Northampton (10-9). Both games will take place on Wednesday, October 22 at the team’s respective home sites. Nazareth defeated the Konkrete Kids 3-0 in the first round of the EPC Tournament and 4-1 in the regular season.
All-Star Selections
The EPC honored its 2025 All-EPC First Team in between Saturday’s league championships with Hallal and Northampton’s Luca Mannino headlining the selections as the respective MVPs. Here are the full lists of all-stars:
Girls
1st Team
GK: Emma Houchin, Senior, Nazareth
DEF: Maddie Ott, Junior, Nazareth
DEF: Emma Paradise, Senior, Emmaus
DEF: Katie Sammarco, Senior, Parkland
MID: Collene Sommers, Junior, Whitehall
MID: Abby Kilareski, Junior, Nazareth
MID: Bella Danise, Senior, Nazareth
FWD: Elizabeth Bender, Junior, Emmaus
FWD: Madison Jankowski, Junior, Nazareth
FWD: Isabella Hallal, Senior, Parkland (MVP)
UTIL: Emma Devers, Senior, ACCHS
Boys
1st Team
GK: Cole Richards, Senior, Whitehall
DEF: Benjamin Grossi, Junior, Emmaus
DEF: Dante Keen, Senior, Northampton
DEF: Christopher Park, Senior, Parkland
DEF: Ben Soleymani, Senior, Freedom
MID: Luca Mannino, Senior, Northampton (MVP)
MID: Royce Thompson, Junior, Pleasant Valley
MID: Anthony Bautista-Yurca, Senior, Parkland
FWD: Canyon Reinhardt, Senior, Emmaus
FWD: Lincoln Fritz, Senior, Parkland
FWD: Joey Snyder, Senior, Northampton
UTIL: Adam Sapanski, Senior, Pleasant Valley
Derek Bast is a freelance sports writer who can be found on Twitter/X at @derek_bast or reached by email at derekbast11@gmail.com.
