Two years ago, Freedom and Emmaus met in the quarterfinals of the District 11 tournament and the Lady Patriots advanced with a 2-1 win on their way to a district championship. Last season, Freedom didn’t qualify for districts and Emmaus exited in the quarterfinals. This time around, the two teams again met in the quarterfinals, and it was Emmaus advancing with a 3-0 win over Freedom at Emmaus’ Memorial Field. Emmaus (12-7-0) came into the tournament seeded fourth, while Freedom was the fifth seed.

The two teams came out jockeying for momentum with neither team able to gain much of an advantage. After nearly 13 minutes of scoreless play, Emmaus got themselves on the board on a goal by Maddi Woodward, which not only gave the Lady Hornets the lead but a distinct advantage through the rest of the first half in momentum.

The problem for Emmaus was that as they looked to add another goal, the Freedom defense and goalie Megan Raffino in particular, were up to the task. The Freedom defense helped out Raffino with a number of key stops while Raffino spent her time either tipping shots over the crossbar or stopping them cold.

“We just came in looking to play our game, which is how we face every game,” said coach Bob Eaton. “If we play our game, we can get goals early sometimes and other times come away with late goals.”

Emmaus came out more aggressive offensively in the second half and again kept the Freedom defense busy. With 31:38 left in the game Kam Watkins sent a near perfect pass to Jenna Luck, who got her shot past Raffino to give the Hornets a little breathing room. It would take another 10 minutes, but the same pair of players would again hook up with Luck getting her second goal of the game as Emmaus stretched their lead, making it 3-0.

From there, Emmaus’ offense looked to keep up pressure but also looked to be content with connecting on crisp passes to take time off the clock. Freedom was able to mount some attacks on goal, but Molly Lineberger was able to keep the ball out of the net. The Patriots also had several shots that went either just wide or over the crossbar.

Emmaus held on to get the win and advance to the District 11 semifinals where they will face top seed Parkland.

The Lady Patriots’ roster has eight seniors – Ciana Feliciano, Evangelia Hahalis, Jacklynne Karlowicz, Addison Roemersma, Amy Schaeffer, Natalie Stannard, Natalia Triscari and Keiley Turpening – who played in their final game with the team. Overall, Freedom finished the year at 12-7-1.

“They exceeded my expectations, so I have to be happy with the team this season,” said Eaton. “We have a good group of seniors that will be leaving us, but we also have good players in other classes, and they did a nice job for me this season.”