Goals came early and often for Emmaus in their Eastern Pennsylvania Conference quarterfinal round matchup against Whitehall on Tuesday at home at Memorial Field.
Facing a Zephyr team that it had defeated 4-0 just eight days ago, the Hornets wasted little time on getting on the scoreboard as they scored three goals in the first five minutes of the game in cruising to a 6-0 win.
Six different players scored goals in the victory for head coach Chris Hain’s squad.
“It was nice to see that many players score goals,” said Emmaus’ third year coach. “We’ve been struggling to score early for some reason, so it was good to see the girls to get off to a good start. We gave them a couple of days off so you could tell the girls had fresh legs tonight and they looked good.”
The victory improves Emmaus’ overall record to 17-1-1 on the season and advances them to Thursday’s semifinals at Northampton at 5:30 p.m. opposite rival Parkland, which outlasted Northampton 3-2 in penalty kicks. The other semifinal will pit top-seeded Nazareth vs fifth-seeded Central Catholic at 7:30 p.m.
Senior Sophia Shutkufski got the scoring started scoring less than two minutes into the match with her third goal of the season. Classmates Giuliana Meyer and Lizzie Bender then scored goals a minute apart – Meyer her 20th and Bender her 17th – to push the advantage to 3-0 before freshman Brooke Evans notched her team-leading 21st goal of the season to make it 4-0 at the break.
In the second half, junior Ella Scharper tallied her third goal of the year and freshman Hayden Taucher, brought up from the JV team, closed out the scoring with her first career varsity goal.
In goal, sophomore Zoe Reppert made two saves and freshman Morgan Betz one. It was the 15th shutout of the season for the Hornets who have allowed just four goals on the season.
“They’ve been phenomenal,” said Hain of his defensive unit of Ella Daly, Cecelia Lower, Koli Esterly, Lily Desiderio and Stella Pietrulewicz (injured). “It looks like they’ve been playing together for years and it’s only been a month and a half.”
Whitehall, which was held scoreless for the fifth time this season, dropped to 10-6-3 on the season with the loss.
Up next for the Hornets will be a second meeting against the Trojans. The two teams played to a 1-1 draw last week.
“We weren’t unhappy with how way we played them the last time,” said Hain. “We just didn’t finish in the opportune times that we had to finish. We had opportunities. We just have to finish our chances and we will be fine.”
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Emmaus 6, Whitehall 0
Wh – 0-0 – 0
Em – 4-2 – 6
Scoring:
Em – Sophia Shutkufski 38:03
Em – Giuliana Meyer (assist Ella Scharper) 36.09
Em – Lizzie Bender (assist Meyer) 35:04
Em – Brooke Evans 30:02
Em – Scharper 22:23 (assist Bender)
Em – Hayden Taucher 7:54 (assist Koli Esterly)
Saves – Wh (Musselman 9), Em (Zoe Reppert 2, Morgan Betz 1)