The Lady Hornets had a lot of motivation at their disposal and they used it all to beat Stroudsburg, 2-0 in Saturday's District 11 field hockey championship. The win gives Emmaus 26 straight district titles.

The two teams were both undefeated at the time they met for the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship, where the Mounties pulled off a 1-0 victory over Emmaus. It wasn't only the first loss of the season for Emmaus, but it was the first time all season that the Hornets were shutout.

That loss brought about some motivation for the Hornets when they got into districts and that motivation went to a higher level after the team read quotes from Stroudsburg coach Jenn Lobasso. The Mounties coach declared Emmaus' reign to be over and the players weren't about to let that be the case.

"I think [losing to Stroudsburg] was self-motivating," said Emmaus head coach Sue Butz-Stavin. "I think they were very disappointed with that loss and there was a newspaper article that was a self-motivation, too. With the media, there was a lot of stuff out there that didn't sit too well with them."

Butz-Stavin didn't just rely on motivation to get the district title. She made a lineup change for rematch and then moved a couple of her young players around to combat what Stroudsburg attempted to do in its first meeting with the Hornets.

"We switched up the positions a little bit at the start," said Emmaus' Maddy Dorn, who scored Emmaus' second goal of the game off an assist from Sholder. "And they were triple-teaming Meredith [Sholder] in the last game, so we switched so that. I was high forward and she was where I usually am, and that worked, because that drew the girls covering her up and it left me open and that worked out very well for us. Everything went according to plan on that corner."

"I think as a coach, you try to figure out the formula, and at times, it came together really nice," said Butz-Stavin. "Stroudsburg tried to double and triple team Mere [Sholder] and they did a great job, but our job was to try to keep moving the ball up field and take one foul at a time and try to take the restarts, keep gaining ground and get the corners and we finally got a beautiful goal off a penalty corner today, that was picture perfect."

The first goal of the game also came off a corner when Tara Tracchio connected with Erika Wilson to give Emmaus a 1-0 lead with just over six-minutes left in the first half.

Emmaus almost had another first-half goal when sophomore Brittany Morgan fired a strong shot at the cage with Stroudsburg goalie Taylor Ross well out of position.

Fortunately for the Mounties, Haley Wrazlen put herself between the ball and the goal and made an outstanding play to keep Emmaus from gaining any further momentum.

Stroudsburg (21-1-2) came into the district title game ranked fifth in the country, while the Lady Hornets were ranked seventh.

Both teams earned spots in the PIAA playoffs. Emmaus (22-1-1) opens play against Conestoga, who finished fifth in District 1. In each of the past two state tournaments, Emmaus has been eliminated by Lower Dauphin, who beat the Hornets in the finals last season and in the semifinals in 2012. Emmaus last won a state title in 2010 when they it beat Cocalico 2-1.