Before this season got underway, Emmaus golf head coach Mike Mihalik said his goals were to defeat Northampton in their opening match of the season and then win the Lehigh Valley Conference.

The Green Hornets accomplished the first of those tasks back on August 20 by 10 strokes. They achieved the latter last Wednesday in a tri match at their home course.

Emmaus welcomed Parkland and Bethlehem Catholic to Brookside Country Club for a match that felt like a postseason tournament. The pressure was high as the winner essentially would win or share the LVC regular season title. Emmaus emerged as the victor, shooting a 410 and defeating Parkland (414) and Bethlehem Catholic (418).

"I am extremely, extremely proud that these guys could beat Northampton, Parkland and Bethlehem Catholic this year," Mihalik said. "I don't care where the course was, the bottom line is that on those days our guys were better than their guys. That is what it is all about. That is why we won the conference this year."

A very integral part of the team's 11-0 regular season is No. 1 player Grant Schumaker and he was important in last week's match as he shot a 75, the lowest Green Hornet score for the day. The senior compiled one birdie, three bogeys and one double-bogey through his solid round that included six consecutive pars on holes 8 through 13.

"It was so important to us," Schumaker said. "We have been thinking about this match since the Northampton match. It has been on our mind for a long time. We knew that we could win this match and that is what we wanted to do."

Emmaus did take the victory, but not before some controversy brewed. On the 18th green Parkland's Brian Cummings putted and his ball rolled past the hole and struck the flag stick that was resting on the putting surface. Cummings nor any of his playing partners, including Emmaus's Max Harrington, saw the ball make contact with the flag stick. Cummings proceeded to finish the hole and his round as he carded an 84.

According to USGA rules, if a player strikes a rested flag stick, that player must be issued a two-stroke penalty for that hole. However, this issue did not come to light until after all the scorecards were signed for that threesome. Because the cards had already been signed without adding the two penalty strokes, both Cummings and Harrington, who shot an 85, were disqualified from the match for signing an incorrect scorecard as Harrington signed Cummings' card attesting to the score.

Regardless of the scoring snafu, Emmaus would have still won the match thanks to Carlos Fullerton (78), Kelsey Patterson (82), Mike Lessel (86) and Kevin Caverly (89).

"I thought the scores were going to be a lot lower than they were," said Mihalik as the sun dropped below the clubhouse. "For these three teams to be shooting over 400 is pretty surprising. For the kids that are members here, they say the course is playing as hard as they remember it playing. No one played lights out, but it was good enough."