Emmaus boys soccer team finished 14-2 overall last season and when the dust settled on an unsettled fall sports season, the Hornets wound up playing in the PIAA Class 4A semifinals, where their season ended. In a bit of unwelcome news for opponents, Emmaus has a good chunk of its already-strong defensive unit back for the 2021 season.

Team captain Jaeden Amato is back for his senior year after a junior campaign that saw him finish as an all-conference player.Emmaus head coach John Cari believes that Amato is one of the best defensive players in Pennsylvania and most opponents would not argue the fact.

Beyond Amato, Emmaus returns three of its four defenders and its starting goalkeeper.

“There’s no question where our strength lies. We’re a good defensive team,” said Cari when talking about the difficulties that other teams will have scoring against his team this season.

John Hanvey and Ty Bleiler were second-team all-conference players last season and return along with Ryan Santos, all of whom are going into their senior seasons. Bleiler, who is a Division 1 prospect as a goalkeeper, will be ready to anchor the defense.

“I’m excited about the guys that we have back and how we’re going to be able to play defensively. It’s nice when you have a defense like that as your starting point.”

With the threat of COVID issues still lingering, Cari and his players are hoping that there are no interruptions to the season. While last fall’s practice season was full of question marks, this year’s has gone much smoother.

Cari was quick to point out that while the threat of COVID is still there, he and the players block it out when they step onto a playing field and that the practices have been good with a lot of things already accomplished.

As for the rest of the lineup, midfielders and forwards have a lot of fresh faces apart from Holden Brown, who was a starter last season for Emmaus.

“It’s going to be interesting,” Cari said. “Our attacks are going to be different, but we believe still strong.”

Among newcomers, Cari points to sophomore Ryan Kiernan, who started last season on varsity until an injury derailed his year, but he was able to see little playing time. Kiernan brings a tall (6-foot-3) frame and all the power that comes with it.

Last season saw a makeshift schedule where Emmaus played only teams in their division, facing each team twice. This season, the schedule has a full slate of games against EPC opponents and two nonconference games against Cumberland Valley and Downingtown West.

The Hornets will play two games each against West Division opponents Allen, Central Catholic, Northampton, Parkland, and Whitehall. Unfortunately, one team that is absent from the schedule is Freedom, which is expected to challenge Emmaus for local supremacy.

“It’s tough to gauge where some of these teams are going to be because we didn’t see a lot of them last year,” Cari noted. “I know Freedom brought back a lot of players and is a very good team. Parkland has a good youth program, and they will be ready. A lot of the teams though – like Liberty or Easton – we didn’t see them last season and I don’t know much about them or how many players they’re bringing back, so it makes it difficult to gauge.”

The rivalry games against Parkland come later in the season with the first game coming Oct. 2 at Emmaus and then the two teams finish the season facing each other at Parkland on October 13. The season opens Sept. 8 when the Hornets are at Northampton with their home opener against Whitehall scheduled for September 10 at Memorial Field.

After not having conference playoffs last season, eight of the 18 EPC teams will qualify for this year’s postseason tournament, which will lead into districts.