It may not have been as dramatic as a victory in what the program experienced back in 2018 when they snapped Parkland’s 70-game win streak, but make no mistake about it, yesterday’s win by Emmaus over their archrivals was sweet — for many reasons.
First, it avenged for an earlier-season 1-0 loss to the Trojans in a game that was decided by a penalty kick.
Second, it had been Parkland that for the last two years had ended Emmaus’ season in the District XI 4A finals.
And third, well, a win against the Trojans for any team over the last decade, has been hard to come by.
They’ve been that dominant.
For Emmaus, it had been six long years since the last time they celebrated a win over their Cedar Crest Boulevard rivals.
That all changed yesterday when the two teams met for the second time this season in the semifinals held at Catasauqua Middle School.
And this victory for the Hornets, was also sweet — for many reasons.
With freshman midfielder Ella Scharper scoring the only goal of the game in the second half, Emmaus took down the four-time defending champs, defeating Parkland 1-0 to advance back to the championship round.
“The girls played great. We had a plan going in and we trained on it pretty much through the weekend, and they stuck to the game plan, all day,” said Hornets first year head coach Chris Hain following the victory.
“When you play against a team like Parkland who’s got great players and is very well coached, you have to have a game plan and then you have to be disciplined enough to stick to the plan and we did that today.”
With the victory, Emmaus improves to 17-3-2 on the season, but more importantly, the Hornets are headed to the finals for the third straight season, and they will have an opportunity to win their first District XI Championship since the spring of 2008.
Awaiting Emmaus in Thursday’s 5 p.m. championship game at Salisbury High School will be fourth-seeded Northampton, which upset top-seeded Nazareth 1-0 in the other semifinal. The Hornets and Konkrete Kids have already met twice this season with Emmaus prevailing in both contests, 2-1 in the regular-season and 1-0 in overtime in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference playoffs.
By virtue of the win, they’ve have also clinched a berth in the PIAA State Tournament for the first time since 2017.
With neither team generating many scoring chances in the first half resulting in a scoreless game at intermission, Emmaus was able to score the game-winner in the 50th minute of play as Scharper’s corner kick somehow found the back of the net past sophomore goalie Hanna Hertzog.
“We worked on something similar (in practice),” said Hain, describing the play. “When she (Scharper) initially took the corner kick, I was aggravated that we didn’t take it the way that we worked on it all week, but it wound up working out in the end, so things happen for a reason, I guess.”
Defensively, Emmaus become only the second team all season to hold the Trojans scoreless.
Senior goalie Ashley Stine posted her 15th shutout of the season in front of outstanding back line of senior Kirsten Esterly, junior Emma Paradise, sophomore Ella Daly along with freshmen Stella Pietrulewicz and Olivia Haberl off the bench.
“Our back line was phenomenal today; our best game of the season as a whole,” said Hain. “Kirsten probably saved two goals in this game on her own. There was no quit in them today.”
Emmaus played without its leading scorer sophomore Lizzie Bender who sat out with a hamstring injury.
With the loss, Parkland ended their season at 17-4-2. The Trojans had claimed the last four District XI 4A titles.
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Emmaus 1, Parkland 0
Em – 0-1 – 1
Pa – 0-0 – 0
Scoring:
Em – Ella Scharper (11th season)