Emmaus came out on the winning end of a wild contest.

While the boxscore showed Emmaus getting outshot 53-20, the Hornets defeated Bethlehem Catholic/Central Catholic of the nonpure division by a 7-5 score after giving up a two-goal lead.

Emmaus may have been more consistent, scoring at a higher efficiency of their shots, but the Golden Hawks had their share of opportunities to take control.

The Green Hornets were helped by strong goaltending from Michael Smoker (47 saves), and some timely goals.

Wyatt Weber netted a hat trick, with two of the goals breaking ties and giving Emmaus some much-needed momentum. It was a big win for the Green Hornets coming off a 3-3 tie last week against Southern Lehigh where they gave up a 3-0 lead late in the second period for their third straight loss.

"I think we just picked up the intensity in the third period and just kept it coming," Weber said. "We just need to keep playing hard and as a team and we'll be fine."

Bethlehem Catholic/Central Catholic was relentless at the net and seemed like the hungrier team. It opened the game with a goal within the first five minutes from Connor Leighton, but fell behind quickly thanks to two goals from Chad Lawrence.

The Golden Hawks tied the game late in the first period when Trevor Kleckner found the back of the net, and then quickly saw a two-goal deficit early in the second period.

Max Rieder and Matt Heffelfinger put Emmaus ahead, but Becahi/Central again would not let up, tieing the game at four. Lance O'Rourke collected a rebound on a shot that was first blocked away by Smoker, and wristed one home. Vince Rossi followed that with a goal just a little over two minutes later.

From there, Weber took the game into his own hands, tallying three straight goals to give the Hornets a 7-4 lead with 1:30 remaining.

Kleckner struck again just 12 seconds later, but when the Hawks pulled their goalie, Heffelfinger wristed an empty-netter from his side of the blue line to put the game to rest with less than a minute to go.

"Our kids had to buy into our game plan tonight," said head coach John Heckenberger. "They got us in the third. We tried to hang around enough so we could sneak one by them. We lost it half way through the third and they got us with a couple of soft goals."