Saturday was a beautiful fall day in the Lehigh Valley, but the Lady Hornets took no time to enjoy the weather or the bright colors of the trees around Memorial Field. Instead, they went right to work and picked up a 4-0 win over Bethlehem Catholic in the East Penn Conference quarterfinals. It took just 15 seconds for Emmaus to go on top 1-0.

The Hornets cut through the Hawks’ defense and Kamryn McWhinney fed Maddi Woodward, who beat goalie Sophia Arvelo for the first goal of the game.

It took a full five minutes for Woodward to pick up her next goal, this time assisted by Ryleigh McNellis, as Emmaus looked to leave no doubt about which team would be advancing to the semifinals.

“Our coach told us to come out strong and get a goal quickly to put them away fast,” said Woodward. “That’s our game right there and that was exactly what we needed to do.”

For any team, falling behind 2-0 in the first five minutes of play would be tough, but Beca was without six players who missed the game because of injuries, and the Hawks lost two more during the game. At one point, the Lady Hawks had six freshmen on the field, including Arvelo, the team’s goalie.

After assisting on Woodward’s goal, McNellis found one of her own when she scored an unassisted goal with just over 20 minutes remaining in the first half. Even with a depleted team and trailing by three goals, Bethlehem Catholic put on some pressure late in the first half and nearly had a goal except for the fact that sophomore goalie Ashley Stine leaped to tip the ball over the crossbar.

“We worked coming into the game to be more prepared and to be a little more dynamic in the postseason, especially with the way that we attack,” said coach Sarah Oswald. “We have not always been consistent finishers, so we talked about ways that we can make it easier for our players in front of the goal to find the back of the net. We really took the coaching points that we went over and did exactly what we needed to do today.”

McWhinney, who leads the team in assists this season, was able to find Woodward again with just over 22 minutes left in regulation. Woodward beat Arvelo with a strong shot that made it 4-0 in favor of the Hornets. From there, the clock was Bethlehem Catholic’s worst enemy as the Emmaus defense went to work and made sure to finish off the shutout, the team’s 10th in its last 12 games.

“Kam (McWhinney) is so talented and is great on that left side of the field,” said Oswald. “She is probably one of the best ball strikers I have seen with the left foot, and she really has a knack of finding players and being dangerous.”

The win moves Emmaus into the semifinal round against Central Catholic. The two teams played to a scoreless tie during the regular season and advanced with an 8-1 win over Northampton on Saturday. In last year’s league quarterfinal game, Emmaus downed Central Catholic to advance to the semis and the Hornets hope to have history repeat itself only in the semifinal round of this year’s tournament.

“I’m excited for the game,” said Woodward. “We beat them last year and we know that they are really going to come at us, but it is going to be a great game and I can’t wait to play them again.”