Now that its season is over, the Emmaus girls soccer team can look back on a season that saw a lot of ups and downs, not just over the whole season, but in the final couple weeks. A 1-0 loss to Northampton in double overtime in the District 11 quarterfinals ended the season for a fairly young group of players.

Leading up to that loss though, Emmaus grabbed a win in its final regular season game against Central Catholic to qualify for the EPC Tournament and then lost in the final 11 seconds to Whitehall in the conference semifinals after knocking off top-seeded Stroudsburg 2-1 in the quarterfinals. From there, Emmaus downed Freedom 2-1 in the first round of districts before going up against Nazareth.

In the win over Freedom, Emmaus came out with perhaps its weakest performance of the season in the first half and then had to sit through a 50-minute lightning delay before the half was over. In the second half, Emmaus was a different team and trailing 1-0, Jen Fritz tied the game less than five minutes into the half and then assisted Meagan Snyder on the winning goal with just 1:35 left to play in regulation.

"We really had to work to get this win and we did have a rough start, but we really focused at halftime, actually got refocused, and came out ready to play," said Fritz.

The Blue Eagles beat Emmaus both times the two teams met during the regular season, leaving Emmaus looking for revenge. Unlike the game against Freedom, Emmaus came out strong right from the start, but was unable to break through with a goal.

The teams played through regulation and the first overtime without a goal, but Nazareth's Haven Snyder was able to take a rebound in front of the net and sneak it past goalkeeper Jess Harnett for the win. Harnett, a freshman, was credited with 16 saves, many of which were spectacular.

"The effort was fantastic," said Emmaus head coach Rob Rooney following the loss. "This is a team that has troubled us twice before and is a team that we gave up five goals to the first time that we played them, gave up two goals to them the last time that we played them and we kept them off the scoreboard for 100 minutes today.

"Unfortunately, we weren't able to get the goal that we needed to get, but that was quite an effort from a team that's consistently played its best in the most important games this year."

Another high this season was the play of senior Shannon McGinnis, who was chosen as a First Team All-Conference player for the second season in a row and was also named to the Pennsylvania Soccer Coaches All-State Team. In addition to those honors, McGinnis was selected to play in the second annual Girls High School All-American Game, which will be played December 13 in Raleigh, North Carolina. McGinnis started all 79 games during her high school career.

The focus now shifts to Rooney himself, who may hand over the reins of the team to Sarah Oswald. The former Hornet forward completed her fourth season as Rooney's assistant. The 2014 season was Rooney's 10th with Emmaus and he also coaches a club team. For now, nothing is definite, but there is the possibility of a change at the top.

"I don't know, probably," he said. "We'll take a couple weeks and Sarah and I will talk and we'll see what she wants to do and see what's best for her and what's best for me and best for the kids."

A lot of the decision could come down to Oswald herself, who played for Rooney and graduated from Emmaus in 2007. She is still the District 11 all-time leader in points with 344. If Oswald feels she is ready to take over, it sounds like the job is hers.

"Sarah's a real quality young coach and I would never want to see her feel like she had to wait forever to get an opportunity," said Rooney. "I've been a young coach before, too, and wanted to have my opportunity to be in charge.

"If she wants to wait another year or two, then I'll come back, but I'm going to go ahead and let her make the decision on what she thinks is best for her and then, I'll live with that. I'm not anxious to leave, but I'm anxious to see her get her chance and if she's ready, I'll happily step aside and if she needs another year or two, I'm happy to stick around."

Oswald declined to comment on the potential for her to take over as the Emmaus coach.