After a 14-4 loss to Parkland back on April 12, the Emmaus girls lacrosse team rattled off five straight Lehigh Valley Conference victories, and six or their last seven wins overall. But last Thursday night at Emmaus Memorial Field, the Lady Green Hornets were stung once again by the Trojans, this time in a one-goal loss, 12-11.

"We've definitely improved since that point," head coach Nancy DeBellis said about the earlier loss to Parkland. "We've had some good runs. The girls are clicking together. We have minor adjustments here and there, but I think we're pretty set, and they're all feeling good about their positions and their responsibilities. They've been playing physical and know how important it is to have that ball in their stick."

The win gives Parkland (14-4 overall, 12-0 LVC) an undefeated mark heading into the Lehigh Valley Conference tournament this week.

Emmaus (9-8 overall, 8-4 LVC) scored on the opening faceoff, just 30 seconds into the game, as Kaitlyn Wills rushed down field and scored past Molly Diamondstein (16 saves). The Green Hornets were close to adding a second just 15 seconds later, when a shot ripped off the post. Emmaus outshot Parkland 3-0 early before Mackenzie Galli recorded the Trojans first shot.

The Trojans got on the scoreboard when Sophie Castillo got one past Sidney Wilson (10 saves). And it was seemingly back and forth from there on out.

Wills added a second near the end of the first half. Samantha Abel tallied two, and Annie Kennedy contributed one goal, all in the first half, but Parkland held a 7-5 lead going into halftime.

In the second half, the Trojans were back on their feet for much of the 25 minutes. Emmaus outshot Parkland again in the second half and put more pressure on Diamondstein's net.

Destanee Watkins brought the deficit to one with a goal in the opening four minutes. After a Kelsey Carlon goal, Dakota Walck and Abel scored the next two to tie the game at 8-8.

Lost in all of the scoring, Emmaus would go down a player for the remainder of the game middle of the way through the second half because of a penalty. Against a high-scoring team like Parkland, that never helps.

"You get put in a tough situation where you're a man down in the second half," noted DeBellis. "The girls adjusted and were good at finding that open person and I thought we did pretty well on that. We had some good shots, but we need a better percentage with all of the shots that we took."

Carlon and Castillo would once again find the back of the net for Parkland, but Wills scored two straight and Emmaus took an 11-10 lead with 6:36 to play, and head coach John Seitzinger called a timeout.

The timeout seemed to motivate his Trojans as Jess Leiby and Castillo scored unanswered goals within 22 seconds of each other to take the lead back.

The Parkland defense still had to withstand a late surge from Emmaus. With possession of the ball and only seconds to tick off the clock, the Trojans turned it over.

Tara Tracchio missed wide an opportunity with under 30 seconds to go, and Wills then missed a free position shot with less than 10 seconds on the clock.

"We're moving forward," added DeBellis. "Hopefully we'll see them again in leagues and districts. We're just looking forward to our game on Monday."

Emmaus ends the regular season with a non-conference game against Upper Perkiomen.