John Cari wasn’t mincing his words talking about the effort of his team’s play in the first half of last night’s Eastern Pennsylvania Conference semifinal matchup vs Freedom.
“A real hellacious first half, probably our worst of the season,” emphasized Cari.
Good thing there’s two halves to the sport, because the Hornets 20th year head coach couldn’t say the same about the effort after intermission.
Getting back to their old ways of possessing the ball and playing a much more inspired brand of soccer, Emmaus was able to control play and get the result that they were looking for as the Hornets earned a hard-fought 1-0 victory over the Patriots at J. Birney Crum Stadium in Allentown.
With the victory, Emmaus (17-2-1) avenged for an earlier-season 1-0 loss to Freedom, but more importantly, they are headed back to the league championship game since winning it all in 2019.
Awaiting the Hornets in Saturday’s 2 p.m. much-anticipated matchup at the Zephyr Sports Complex in Whitehall will be a familiar foe in rival and top-seeded Parkland, which had to go overtime to defeat fifth-seeded Pleasant Valley 1-0.
This will be the first time since 2017 that the two rivals will be meeting in the title game. Parkland beat Emmaus in that matchup 2-1 and the Trojans also claimed gold back in 2022.
Like the result they got in last night’s win, the Hornets will also have an opportunity for a little bit of payback as the two rivals just met nine days ago with Parkland prevailing 2-1.
Senior Mohamed Hassanali, who scored the game-winner in Emmaus’ 1-0 quarterfinal round win over Allen on Tuesday, once again shined on the post-season as he scored the game’s lone goal in the 71st minute off of a header past Freedom goalie Micah Lawser.
“Callum Harvey played a great ball into the box and I just saw it and put my head on it,” said Hassanali on scoring his ninth goal of the season. “It was very similar to the goal I scored the other night, a header, but this one was off a crossing (pass).”
“It feels good, we got our revenge and this what we wanted to do,” he added.
Cari was also happy for his senior midfielder.
“He’s just coming into his rhythm now, it takes a while,” he said of Hassanali who just returned to the lineup. “He played the first week of the pre-season and then was out and missed about a third of the season.
“He’s the kind of player who thrives on the energy and he’s been playing pretty well and has been the hot hand lately. We knew what he is capable of doing so were okay if he’s going to peak now. That’s good for us.”
Defensively, Emmaus was once again stout as they posted their 12th shutout of the season. Freshman Brennan Stack came off the bench and played well and also drew the praise of his coach after the game.
For the match, neither team generated many scoring chances in the game with Emmaus outshooting Freedom 3-2. The Pates held the advantage in corners 5-1.
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Emmaus 1, Freedom 0
Em – 0-1 – 1
Fr – 0-0 – 0
Scoring:
Em – Mohamed Hassanali 71′
Stats:
SOG – Em 2, Fr 3
Corners – Em 1, Fr 5
Saves – Em (Will Peck 3), Fr (Micah Lawser 1)
Starters –
Em – #2 Moyer, #3 Johnson, #8 Harvey, #9 Powell, #10 Hassanali, #17 Mattern, #20 Reinhardt, #21 Grossi, #24 Tumblin, #26 Dang, #1 Peck
Fr – #2 Logan Shupp, #3 Dylan Shupp, #4 Soleymani, #5 Herrera, #6 Blake, #7 Tello, #8 Sutton, #9 Freeman-Nield, #13 Matlock, #19 Lynch, #1 Lawser