Good football programs do the little things right and they do it day after day, week after week and eventually, year after year.

That consistency of excellence is the program coach Matt Senneca envisions for his Whitehall Zephyrs. In his view, they took a step toward that last Friday night, even though they were beaten 38-28 by the Emmaus Green Hornets at E.P.S.D. Stadium. The loss knocked the Zephs (2-3) under the .500 mark, while Emmaus (4-0) remained undefeated.

“Good programs start stacking things together,” said Senneca after the loss. “...I don’t care what that scoreboard says. We took a step forward. We have no reason to hang our heads.”

The Zephs made Emmaus work for its win and some Zephyr fans no doubt think a controversial interception turned the outcome. Nevertheless, Whitehall came back twice during the contest and held a 28-23 third quarter lead before Emmaus put the game away in the fourth quarter with a 5-yard touchdown run from Brandon Camire.

“We responded to adversity,” the coach told his players. “There is a lot in front of us after tonight.”

Trailing 8-0 in the first quarter, the Zephyrs got on the board when Damonte Foreman took a Quinn Wentling pass 57 yards to the house. But Camire kicked the Zephs in the shins, returning the kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown and Emmaus tacked on two more points with the conversation to lead 16-7.

But Whitehall would not easily take defeat. Their offense created several big plays on this night and they responded with a beautiful 79-yard touchdown pass from Wentling to Ryan Kovalchik to cut the lead to 16-14 late in the first period.

The Zephyrs took the lead in the second quarter on a 1-yard run by Foreman to take a 21-16 lead into halftime.

In the third quarter Camire, an elusive runner, stung Whitehall again, this time on a 38-yard touchdown run to put Emmaus up 23-21. Once again, Whitehall refused to pack it in. A nice Zephyr drive culminated in a Wentling to Bryce Bayshore TD pass of 32 yards to give Whitehall a 28-23 lead. However, Emmaus countered with another long touchdown pass and put the game away for good with 6:36 left with the Camire touchdown run.

The stats support Senneca’s argument that his team had nothing of which to be embarrassed. Whitehall completely dominated Emmaus in offensive plays from scrimmage (79-48), total yards (433-273) and held a slight advantage in first downs (17-15). For his part Wentling played a solid football game at quarterback. He fired his rifle 38 times, completing 20 for a formidable 322 yards and three touchdowns.

However, two untimely Wentling picks hurt the Whitehall cause. The second - by Emmaus’ Tanner Ritter - was debatable. But the fact is it was ruled an interception and Emmaus took over momentum for good shortly thereafter.

Further, the Zephyr running attack sputtered all night, gaining just 82 yards on 33 carries. Defensively Whitehall played respectably, but Emmaus made enough big plays to win. The Zephyr special teams were not bad, as Connor Fenstermaker had a 60-yard kickoff return thanks to some hard running and good blocking. But Camire’s kickoff return for six hurt Whitehall and showed how important special teams can be in a football game.

In defeat, Senneca believed Whitehall played a quality opponent tough and checked another day off the calendar toward becoming a good football program.