The Lady Hornets opened defense of their 32 straight District 11 field hockey championships with an 11-0 win over Whitehall last week. The win sends them into the semifinals, which will have Emmaus (22-0-0) matched up against Easton (16-6-0) in a replay of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship game, which Emmaus won 2-1.

The scoring against Whitehall (9-10-0) started early with Rachel Herbine scoring four of her five goals in the first quarter. Abby Burnett assisted on two of the goals and Jenna Villeneuve assisted on the other.

Sophomore Hailey Kvacky also picked up a first-quarter goal to give the Hornets an early 5-0 lead. Alexis Kociban scored with 3:20 left in quarter two and Burnett added her third assist of the game on a goal by Kyleigh Faust to make it 7-0 at halftime.

After being an assist machine in the first half, Burnett netted two goals in the third and Herbine added her fifth goal. Freshman Autumn Kernechel scored the game’s final goal midway through the final period.

“It felt great, but I couldn’t have done it without my teammates,” said Herbine of her five goals. “Abby gave me a lot of good balls in the middle and just everyone worked really well together. We came out with a pretty strong start, and I thought we got an early lead and that was really good for us.”

Herbine and Burnett are both juniors and have played together for years, giving them a sixth sense of where the other is on the field and what their capabilities are. That connection has made them tough to defend and gives Emmaus plenty of scoring opportunities.

“I think developing that connection in the past has really helped us work well together on this team and other teams,” said Burnett. “It’s great to have a bond with her and my other teammates too, especially in a game like this.”

One of the things that makes Emmaus so powerful is that it continues to work on perfecting its lineup. Throughout the game, coach Sue Butz-Stavin shuttled players in and out in search of just the right grouping and preparing for any conceivable scenarios that could come up in the later rounds.

“We were playing pretty well, but we had a player that always seems to get into funky situations at this time of year and I decided we needed to move her out of her position, and we made some adjustments,” said Butz-Stavin. “We just have one little specific hole that I’m trying to see who is best at filling.

“I also wanted to give some kids playing time. We have a senior group and it’s hard to get them all in to play all the time with nine seniors. And then we’re also looking in case somebody gets hurt, who can fill those roles.”

Easton is one of just two teams to hold a lead over Emmaus this season. The Rovers scored an early goal against the Green Hornets in the East Penn Conference championship for a short-lived 1-0 edge. Burnett tied the game later in the first half and Faust gave Emmaus the lead for good when she scored in the second half for the 2-1 win.

Easton goalie Madison Poplawski had 23 saves in the game and the Red Rovers defense also contributed to keeping Emmaus to just two goals for the second game in a row.

Emmaus and Easton normally meet in the district finals, which they had done for four straight seasons coming into this year’s playoffs. Two of those meetings were decided by one goal with one of those games going to overtime. Last season, Emmaus downed Easton 7-1 to win district gold.

The Hornets are currently on a 38-game winning streak and although records are not complete enough to verify the exact number, it’s estimated that they now have 97 straight wins in District 11 playoff games dating back to 1989 when they began their current championship streak.