The Emmaus High School girls lacrosse team is probably tired of hearing the last name Bush when playing Pleasant Valley. Bears head coach Toni Bush’s older daughter is senior Alexandra Bush and younger daughter is freshman Devon Bush. The Bears, behind a combined seven goals from Alexandra and Devon, defeat the No. 1 seed Green Hornets 11-9 in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship game last Thursday evening at Northampton’s Al Erdosy Stadium. It was the program’s first conference title.

“They are great players and they’re running a great program over there even if it is newer,” said Emmaus head coach Roxann Betz of Pleasant Valley, which had its program start in 2016. “They really answered the call and played great lacrosse for the entire 48 minutes.”

It was also the second time Pleasant Valley beat Emmaus this year. Two of the Hornets’ three losses have come at the hands of the Bears.

Emmaus (17-3 overall, 8-1 EPC) had been the top team in the conference all season, its lone loss coming at the hands of the Bears (15-5, 7-2). Pleasant Valley did it again, this time on a bigger stage.

The way that the Bears did it was their attacking style on offense, which led to numerous free-position opportunities, and winning a majority of the draw controls.

League MVP Julia Cote of Emmaus buried two shots in the opening six-plus minutes as the Hornets led 1-0 and 2-1. But Alexandra Bush put in the next two and the Bears never trailed again. They did it by holding a 13-8 advantage on draw controls and they scored six of their 11 goals on free-position shots. Emmaus, meanwhile, struggled finding the back of the net at the same rate.

“We definitely talked about that in our timeouts and halftime, we needed to improve that shot placement,” Betz said. “Their goalie played really well today, made a lot of tough saves. When we were playing (a player down) for most of the second half. It’s hard to really get the drives and even the passes in because there’s multiple players being double teamed. It became difficult, but they fought hard in the very end.”

The Green Hornets won three of the final four draw controls and pulled to within just two goals with about a minute to play. But they just ran out of time in their comeback effort.

“It’s tough losing Jordyn [Poll] because we depend on her in the midfield, on the draw, so we had to make some adjustments. I thought Emily Hollinger did a great job on the circle and Julia stepped up on the draw. They fought hard and came up with some draw controls in the end to push until the very last second,” Betz said.

Emmaus received the top seed in the upcoming District 11 Class 3A tournament and will have a bye into the semifinal round on Monday. The Green Hornets will take on the winner of Parkland-Freedom at Northampton High School.

Cote led the way with four goals and an assist. Emily Hollinger and Mikayla Viola both finished with two goals. Melea Weber rounded out the scoring with a goal.