In its season opener against Southern Lehigh in the Lehigh Valley Faceoff Classic, the Emmaus boys lacrosse team's play only seemed to get better as the game progressed.

In fact, it got a whole lot better.

Leading by just two at halftime, the Hornets (1-0) ballooned their lead to 14-6 after three periods of play and routed the Spartans 16-7 to open their season with a victory on Saturday evening at Memorial Field.

"We came out here and we played fast like we wanted to," said Marc Feldman. "We accomplished our goal for the most part. There's a few kinks we need to work out - some little things, little fundamentals for the most part. But overall we're rather happy with our performance."

After a Spartan goal within the first two minutes of the second half, the Hornets went on to score eight straight goals that stretched into the final moments of the fourth period to push their lead to double digits.

The Spartans got a late goal with just over a minute to play that broke a drought of 21-plus scoreless minutes, but the game was already decided.

"[Head coach Scott Ketcham] just told us to clean it up - the fundamentals and the little things," said Feldman. "We had a lot of offsides in the beginning. Little things like that really hurt us and kind of held them in the game."

Feldman, who had a game-high four goals, Nick Tonno and Drew Phillipes each had two goals in the third period that broke open the game.

Feldman started the scoring barrage just 39 seconds into the third quarter. Following a Spartan score 36 seconds later, Nate Kraemer was left alone and fired a shot into the back of the goal that began the Hornets' 8-0 run.

"What we wanted to see is assisted goals, and we had plenty of those today," said Ketcham. "When we know we're playing well is when we're moving the ball. When we have assisted goals we know we're moving it."

The Hornets opened up a 3-0 lead in the first period after Peter Conway scored two early goals. The Spartans responded in the final five minutes though, scoring three straight goals to tie it at three after the opening 12 minutes.

Emmaus once again went on run, scoring the first three goals of the second period to lead 6-3 after Tonno tallied his first of the game. That margin was cut to two at halftime though, and the Spartans remained within striking distance.

Tonno and Jacob Baker each tallied three goals in the win. Phillipes had two goals and two assists, and Conway added a pair goals.

After a matchup against Manheim Township on Thursday at Memorial Field, the Hornets will host Parkland on Tuesday at 7 p.m.