The last two District 11 Class 4A boys soccer championships have been won by Emmaus and the defending champs recently took a first step toward making it three straight with a 4-1 win over Easton in the quarterfinal round.

The Hornets looked to get an early jump on scoring, but Red Rovers goalie Andrew Perhamus was on fire making one stop after another to turn away the Emmaus offense.

Eventually, the Hornets broke through when they were awarded a free kick and Ryan Santos headed the ball toward the goal where Bryan Flor was able to put one past Perhamus for a 1-0 lead with 8:16 left in the first half. Just two minutes later, Jaeden Amato took a corner kick from Juan Baracaldo and gave the Hornets a little cushion at 2-0, where the game remained at halftime.

“That first goal was actually something we’ve been working on a lot lately,” said Flor. “We’ve been focusing on set pieces and practicing them all the time and when I saw the ball coming in, I just knew it was going to happen.”

The senior forward put the use of a header into play early in the second half when Blaise Verrastro sent a ball toward the mouth of the goal and this time it was Flor who headed the ball to give Emmaus a 3-0 lead with 36:30 left in regulation.

“Brian played really well,” said Emmaus head coach John Cari. “Brian is a work rate kid and I just felt that the way the game was going, if he could work in behind their outside back, he was going to give us opportunities. Besides the goals, he had about four or five shots and did a good job.”

After Flor’s second goal, Easton moved Perhamus out from in front of the net and had him playing as a forward. The strategy worked well for the Rovers, who kept Emmaus off the board and saw Perhamus pick up a goal with 10:08 left to play, making it a 3-1 game and giving Easton a new sense of life in the game.

Less than three minutes later, senior Logan Mains put on an impressive run through the midfield, beat a defender, who couldn’t match Mains’ speed, and then cut inside to make a shot for the final nail in the coffin. The goal put the Hornets up 4-1 with little time for Easton to look to make another run at bridging the gap.

“I think that we kind of had a lapse and maybe fell asleep for five to seven minutes,” Cari noted. “When they scored their goal, I think Logan just said ‘okay, I’m going to just work harder.’ It wasn’t anything fancy. It was just hard work, and he found an opportunity and seized it on a tight angle.”

The win moves Emmaus to Tuesday’s semifinals where it will be paired against Freedom for a place in the finals, which will be played Thursday night. Freedom is the East Penn Conference champ and top seed in the tournament and downed Stroudsburg 7-1 in their quarterfinal game. The Hornets are the fourth seeded team.

“I’m pleased,” said Cari. “I think it was a good starting point and to be able to find four goals is big. I’m a little disappointed that we let one in, but I think that overall, defensively we held up strong tonight and that we are pretty much in control.”

Emmaus is playing well and the team has some confidence building up for a title run and the upcoming game against Freedom. The Patriots won this year’s league title with a 5-0 win over Parkland after the Trojans squeaked past the Hornets 1-0 in overtime in their league semifinal matchup.

The two teams have a history of matchups in District 11 tournament games with Emmaus knocking the Patriots out in last year’s semifinals and a year earlier taking them out in the quarterfinals. In 2018, it was Freedom besting Emmaus in the championship game.

“As long as we play the way we played tonight, we’ll be in good shape,” said Flor. “This was one of our better games and I think we can play this well against any team.”