The Emmaus boys hopes for a bid in the PIAA Tournament ended with a 2-0 loss to Parkland, who also captured the Lehigh Valley Conference title.

The loss came on the heels of a 3-0 win over Stroudsburg that served up some revenge for last year's loss to the Mounties in the district championship game, which was a 1-0 loss on penalty kicks.

Emmaus junior Greg Lind got the scoring started for the Hornets halfway through the first half and Parker Landis picked up two goals, giving him 21 on the season in the win over Stroudsburg.

Landis nearly had number 22 against Parkland, but his header went off the crossbar and bounced harmlessly out of bounds.

The loss to Parkland was not without some controversy. With the Trojans up 1-0, there was a scrum in front of the Parkland net and the result was the ball winding up in the back of the net, but the referee's whistle wasn't to signal a goal. Instead it was for a penalty on Emmaus that nullified the goal and dashed a lot of momentum for the Hornets.

"I thought we played hard the second half," said Emmaus head coch John Cari, whose team finishes the season at 17-5-1 overall. "We threw everything we had at them and they were tough.

"I thought Landis' header was a good shot, but that didn't go and I don't know what the call was that brought the second one back. It was in. I still don't understand what the call was, but we played hard, we just didn't finish our opportunities and that's what happens."

The Hornets had another opportunity with 5:32 left in the game, but a shot by Cory Ross went wide of the net. As Emmaus scrambled to try to tie the game, goalkeeper Ethan Lang came out to try to stop a shot, but the rebound went right to Byron Derti, who was able to get past Lang for an empt-net insurance goal for the Trojans.

"This is a hard one to look back on, because this season we did a lot of good things, but we came away empty handed; it's a hard one," said Cari. "Kudos to Parkland though, they put it away when they had to and they took their opportunities. They'll do well in the tournament."

Emmaus was hoping to avenge their 7-0 regular season loss against Parkland, but missed an opportunity both in districts and also in the LVC Tournament when they lost to Easton in the semifinal round.

Even with the tough ending, Cari believes that his team performed well over the course of the season and one of the main reasons was the play of his seniors.

"They [the seniors] absolutely stepped up and had great years out there," he said. "We lose the MVP of the league for the second year in a row [Justis Faulkner] and that's hard. On defense, we're starting over back there. I'm very proud of our seniors."

While key players including Faulkner, Charlie Jerry, who finished his high school career one assist shy of tying the school's all-time assists record, Patrick Russell, Kevin Kender and Kevin Waterman exit, Cari has a solid crop of young players coming up to fill some holes.

"Parker Landis, the leading scorer in the league, will be back and I bring back my goal keeper and there are a lot of other guys who got some experience this year, so we'll be a strong team," said Cari.