Once again the Emmaus football team returns home after a tough loss. And again the Green Hornets will look to use the home field to their advantage. A one-point overtime loss at Easton three weeks ago was followed by a dominating 35-14 home win over Northampton.

Last week Emmaus (4-3) suffered a heart-breaking 24-22 loss at Liberty in the final seconds. The Green Hornets welcome in Whitehall (5-2), and hope to continue their unbeaten home record on homecoming weekend.

"Our players are looking forward to the challenge," said head coach Joe Bottiglieri. "They always look forward to homecoming and the challenge of playing a good Whitehall team. Games that we come to play we do well, and games that we don't come to play and take care of business we don't. Last week we turned the ball over four times and just didn't do the job. Normally after we don't take care of business, we come back and play well, so I'm looking forward to them stepping up this week."

The Zephyrs are coming off a 32-7 victory over Central Catholic last week and have some weapons offensively that can put points up on the scoreboard.

"Shafnisky makes them go, he's a really good player," said Bottiglieri. "They have a couple good running backs in Bonshak and Wah, and they have a couple others that have been playing pretty good. They have a good tight end and two good receivers, so they're good. They have a very solid team especially on the offensive side. It's a challenge because they also have a good defense and kicking game."

The Green Hornets will look to put pressure and force Shafnisky to throw quicker than he wants and also prevent him from rushing. On the offensive side, it is key to prevent turnovers and to win that battle so the Hornets put themselves in good shape to score.

"We're going to prepare like we usually do," said Bottiglieri. "We'll look at what they do best and try to slow that down a little bit. We're going to try and take what the defense gives us. We want to control the ball and move the chains. We can't afford a lot of three-and-outs, and defensively need to contain Shafnisky and not allow him to pick us apart."