Boys Lacrosse – Hornets defense puts the clamps on Delaware Valley’s offense as Emmaus advances to its third straight District XI Championship game with 9-1 win.

5/21/19

RECAP >> Playing what head coach Desi Gonzalez called his team’s best defensive performance of the season, Emmaus completely shut down Delaware Valley’s offense as they held the Warriors to just one goal, while the Hornets offense scored in every quarter in Tuesday’s night’s 9-1 win in the District XI Class 3A semifinals held at Northampton High School.

“It was great defensive effort, by far the best we played this season,” said the Hornets second year coach following the win. “We had one hiccup all game and that led to their only goal.”

” (Devon) Boyko shut there number one scorer down and limited him to only four shots the entire game. (Ryan) Thomas shut his guy down and (Reece) Wieder probably caused seven or eight turnovers in the game. (Matt) Dapper also played well. It was a compete defensive effort and a fun thing to watch.”

The victory advances third-seeded Emmaus, now 14-7 overall on season, back to the finals for the third consecutive year on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Lehigh University against a familiar foe in top-seeded Parkland, which defeated Easton, the No.5 seed, in the other semifinal, 10-4. The Hornets have fallen twice this season to the Trojans – 9-8 and 9-5 – and have also lost to their rivals in the last two district championship games – 13-5 and 15-9.

Zach Whalen led the Hornets in scoring with his second hat trick of the season. The sophomore scored all three of his goals in the first half as Emmaus led 5-1 at the break.

Junior Michael Leschinsky had his 14th multi-goal game of the season as he scored a pair of his goals, Nos. 43 and 44 of the season, while teammate senior Bailey O’Connor also scored two goals, extending his scoring streak to eight straight games.

Senior Sam Conway added his 28th goal of the season in the win, while Dapper scored in his second straight game with his third goal of the year.

Delaware Valley’s lone goal of the game came in the second quarter from Jackson Melnick. The Warriors ended their season at 16-3 overall.

Check back to Emmaussports.com on Wednesday for a preview of the Hornets District XI Championship game with Parkland.

Follow @Emmaussports.com on twitter, ‘like’ Emmaus lacrosse on facebook to keep up to date on the team throughout the season.

Emmaus – 2-3-1-3 – 9

Del Val – 0-1-0-0

Emmaus goals – Zach Whalen 3, Michael Leschinsky 2, Bailey O’Connor 2, Sam Conway, Matt Dapper

Emmaus assists – Grant Hawkins 2, Devon Boyko

Emmaus saves – Ben Franco 2

Del Val goal – Jackson Melnick

Del Val saves – Henry Hamill – 8