In the first half of the PIAA finals, Emmaus found itself in a position it hadn't encountered all season long. The Hornets were losing by two goals. That deficit turned out to be too much as Lower Dauphin downed Emmaus 2-1 to repeat as Class AAA state champions Saturday at the Zephyr Sports Complex in Whitehall.

The loss gave the Hornets a final record of 26-1 for the season after they captured their 25th straight district title and 10th straight Lehigh Valley Conference championship. For the senior class, it was also the second time in four years that they were in the state final after capturing a state title in 2010. Their two other years, the seniors saw their team go out in the PIAA semi-finals.

Coach Sue Butz-Stavin credits that senior class with helping the program to continue their tradition of success and would have liked to see her seniors go out with another gold medal from the PIAA.

"They arrived at practice every day ready to practice," she said. "We worked hard and there wasn't anything that was distracting from their play. They had a mission in mind and I think that mission was getting here to the state final today, because as freshmen they got a state title and they were trying to make a bookend out of it, but it just didn't happen."

One turning point in the game came early in the game when Emmaus appeared to score a goal just under six minutes into the game. The officials called a foul on Emmaus and waved off the goal that would have given the Hornets a 1-0 lead.

"I thought it was a quick whistle," said Butz-Stavin of the call that seemed to frustrate her team.

Emmaus seemed to be put back on its heels by Lower Dauphin, who controlled play for much of the first half. Nearly 10 minutes after Emmaus' nongoal, senior Taylor Lister delivered a shot that even she thought was going to go wide, but instead hit the inside of the post and caromed into the net to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead.

Ironically, Lister and Emmaus senior Krissy Mikelson will be teammates next season at the University of Delaware.

"I haven't met her yet, but I wanted to try to introduce myself, but I haven't had the chance," said Mikelson after the game.

"This will all be behind us and we'll probably become good friends. She's a great player and I'm looking forward to getting to know her," said Lister.

With Lower Dauphin up 2-0, it would be Mikelson who capped her career with her 29th goal of the season to cut the lead to 2-1, but with just 36 seconds remaining, Emmaus didn't have time to mount a threat for another goal.

"They just kept firing away and coming at us," said senior Kiera Godusky, who will be heading to Quinnipiac University next year. "We've been challenged in the past, but they brought a lot of intensity. They're a great team."

"We just didn't have the passing combination and when we would get up there, we just didn't get some corners that I thought we should get, but we've got a medal around our necks and we played hard," said Butz-Stavin.

Emmaus will graduate nine seniors, eight of whom are starters, and will look to reload next season. It's the second season in a row that Emmaus will be hit hard by graduation, but not nearly as bad as 2002 when it lost 13 seniors and still was able to bounce back the following season.

While she'll miss her seniors from this season, Butz-Stavin is looking ahead to the future and what next season will bring.

"Things evolve and people step up and fill somebody else's shoes and somebody will make a difference," she said.