Perhaps Mohamed Hassanali said it best in describing his team’s effort on Wednesday night in the opening-round of the District XI Class 4A playoffs at Memorial Field.
“Today we wanted to make a statement,” said the Emmaus junior midfielder.
Hassanali and his teammates did just that – emphatically.
They also put the rest of the district on notice that they are indeed back and are still the team to beat.
After being stunned in the opening-round of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference playoffs in a 5-4 penalty kick loss to Whitehall some nine days ago, Hassanali, sidelined with an injury, could only watch helplessly as his teammates walked off the field in disbelief after being upset by the Zephyrs, the No.8 seed, for the second consecutive season.
Last night, he made that feeling of disappointment quickly go away.
A first-year player, Hassanali scored a pair of goals five minutes apart in the first half and Emmaus was never challenged the rest of the way as they overwhelmed Nazareth 5-0.
“It was fun and a great team win. We all played together and it really showed on the scoreboard ,” said Hassanali who was named the SportClips Player of the Game following the the LIVE coverage on The Eastern Pa. Sports Network’s coverage. “
Earlier this season when Emmaus traveled to Nazareth, the Hornets dominated the Blue Eagles statistically (14-0 SOG & 5-0 Corners) but only came away with a 1-0 victory on sophomore Canyon Reinhardt’s goal.
In the second meeting, head coach John Cari’s team made that one-goal victory a distant memory with an offensive explosion, scoring three goals in the first half and two more after intermission.
“We’re a sneaky good offense,” pointed out Cari. “We put 86 goals in this year and that might tie for the best of any of my teams in my 19 years here. It’s impressive. Eighty-six goals is a lot in a year.”
“I know people focus in our defense, but we put in some goals tonight and I was proud of our efforts. As soon as we got that first goal all of a sudden the light kinda went off and we got back to who we are.”
Junior forward Kai Mattern wound up scoring the only goal the Hornets would need on the night as he found the back of the net with his seventh goal of the season just seven minutes into the contest.
“We were glad to get the monkey off of our back and get an early goal and it sure made a difference,” said Cari.
Senior Ryan Kiernan, who was recently named an EPC First Team All-Star and all-state, scored his team-leading 18th goal of the season in the second half and sophomore Conner Powell closed out the scoring with his eigth goal in the 73rd minute.
Defensively, Emmaus was once again outstanding posting its 17th shutout of the season. The backline of seniors Eli Pennell, Preston Eshelman, Dahlin Allport and junior Brayden Dang held Nazareth to just a pair of shots on goal.
For the match, Emmaus outshot Nazareth 10-2 and the Hornets held a 4-2 advantage in corners. In goal, senior Colin Wilson picked up the win making two saves, while his counterpart, junior Noah Bogar, was credited with five stops.
Nazareth, which was competing in districts for the fourth straight year, ended its season 10-7-2 overall. The Blue Eagles were shutout for the eighth time.
Up next for Emmaus will be the District XI semifinals and a rematch against archrival Parkland which survived Pleasant Valley (2-1). The game will be held on Tuesday, October 31 at 8 p.m. at J. Birney Crum Stadium in Allentown. The Trojans ended the Hornets season a year ago with a 1-0 overtime win in the finals.
Emmaus will be looking to reach the finals for the 13th consecutive season and they also know that they’ve already defeated Parkland once this season with a 3-1 victory on October 11 at Memorial Field.
To stay up to date on Emmaus sports, follow @Emmaussports.com on twitter and like Emmaus sports on facebook.
Emmaus 5, Nazareth 0
Naz – 0-0 – 0
Em – 3-2 – 5
Scoring:
Em – Kai Mattern 7′ (Callum Harvey)
Em – Mohamed Hassanali 20′
Em – Hassanali 25′
Em – Ryan Kiernan 52′ (Elijah Miller)
Em – Conner Powell 73′