Kevin Caverly's round at the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Golf Championships didn't start how he had hoped.

After a bogey on his first hole, Caverly's ball found the water twice on the next hole, where he three-putted for a six-over par through two holes.

But from that point on, Caverly's round was as impressive as any golfer in the competition.

Caverly, who shot a one-over par over the final 16 holes, finished with a 7-over-par 79 and a third-place finish. He was one of four Hornet golfers that shot 82 or under as Emmaus won the EPC team championship last Tuesday at Woodstone Country Club.

"I just had to make sure I didn't let the bad shots I hit on the second hole get in my head," Caverly said. "I had to focus on the next shot and not the last shot."

"That right there was a difference maker," head coach Mike Mihalik said, "because he kept it together, and played incredible golf the rest of the way."

Max Harrington also shot a 79 and finished in sixth place for the boys, while Patrick Bryan finished 13th with a score of 82. Samantha Fritzinger (82) and Kelsey Patterson (83) finished in second and third for the girls, respectively.

The Hornets' top five scores were also counted as part of a three-team playoff to determine the regular season champions between Emmaus, Parkland and Easton. The Hornets won that with a score of 405, their third straight regular season championship.

"The league title playoff, to me, was a thousand times more important than the tournament itself," Mihalik said. "When I look back on that day, it was certainly the way that we performed against Parkland and Easton in the team playoff that was special."

"It was a good day because everyone played well, and it wasn't really close," Caverly said. "It was nice because we lost our three seniors from last year, and we weren't expected to be as good, and we still won."

Grant Schumaker, who finished second in last year's league tournament, is the key graduate from last year's team. Fellow graduates Carlos Fullerton and Mike Lessel were the Hornets' other top golfers a year ago.

"It's really neat for this particular group because they were all contributors last year, but they weren't the main guys," Mihalik said. "The best part about this year's league championship is that the kids who are contributing as our key, main contributors are new kids."

Mihalik's team has prided itself on maintaining consistent, steady scoring throughout the lineup all season. Tuesday's tournament was the prime example of how the Hornets play when they're most successful.

"When you look at our team's performance, it was pretty typical for our team," Mihalik said. "When we have played well this year, it's always been very consistent golf throughout our lineup where everyone is bunched up together and all shooting right around their averages. We rarely rely on someone shooting a spectacular number."

Following Caverly's rough start, the junior began to find his grove as the round came to a close, particularly on holes 13 through 17. He collected back-to-back birdies on 14 and 15, and pars on 13, 16 and 17 positioned him at a chance amongst the tournament leaders.

"I was hitting a lot of fairways and hitting a lot of greens," Caverly said. "I didn't putt too well, but I hit the irons really good. The driver was good enough."

Five Emmaus golfers (Caverly, Harrington, Bryan, Fritzinger and Patterson) will represent the Hornets in the District 11 Class AAA team tournament, which will compete against three other top Class AAA teams at next week's district championship tournament, where individual and team competitions are held simultaneously.

Bethlehem Catholic's Nick Maff was the top boys finisher with a 77 at the EPC Championship. Freedom's Helen HSU shot a 79 on way to her first-place finish in the girls EPC Championship.

Fritzinger and Patterson qualified for the girls district individual tournament based on their season averages.

Caverly, Harington and Bryan played in Monday's district qualifier for the boys individual tournament. Harrington shot 81 to finish comfortably below the cut line of 85. Caverly carded a 92, while Bryan shot 93.

All three Emmaus boys will play in the District 11 Championship Tournament Monday at Shawnee, but only Harrington and the two girls will be part of the individual competition with a chance to earn a medal and move on to regionals, while Caverly and Bryan will only be competing in the team part of the competition in hopes of helping the Hornets reach a subregional team match in mid-October.