On a wet, blustery Monday night at Joan Kremus field, the Northampton girls soccer team squared off against once-beaten Emmaus with a chance to post a signature win. While the Kids did draw first blood, the Hornets were relentless and went home with a 5-2 victory.

Head coach Michael Missmer was blunt in his postgame assessment, “We felt we beat ourselves with really bad fundamental mistakes that we had never seen before. In a game against a high-level opponent, I can point to four of those goals where they shouldn’t have happened. We made some stupid mistakes, but we stay together as a team and we roll this. There’s a good chance that we’ll see them one or two times in the postseason and we’ll try to reverse the result.”

Chloe Watson put Northampton up 1-0 at the 22:33 mark of the first half when the Emmaus keeper and a defender collided trying to play the ball and it squirted through them into the net.

The euphoria on the K-Kids’ sideline was short-lived however, as the Hornets equalized just 31 seconds later when they knocked home a rebound after Emma Fry had saved the initial shot.

Emmaus scored twice more in the first half and looked ready to take a 3-1 lead into the intermission. Northampton drew a foul 35 yards away from goal and Lindsay Reimer hit a rocket that cleanly evaded the Hornet keeper with just 17 seconds before halftime to cut the deficit to a single goal.

As the teams switched sides, the 20 mph wind that had been at the Kids’ backs for the first 40 minutes, now acted as an additional defender in thwarting their attempted comeback.

Emmaus scored 3 minutes into the second half to take a 2-goal lead and essentially ended the contest with their fifth tally with 19:34 left to play and Northampton struggling to make consistent headway toward the Hornet net.

Despite the disappointing loss, Missmer is still optimistic about the future, “We’re still 7-4. We’re in a great spot. We should get to the tournaments and hopefully we learn from these mistakes and get better as we always do.”

As the K-Kids head into the final stretch of the regular season, they can take solace in knowing there is an opportunity to get on roll heading into playoffs. The team does not face a school with a winning record until the season finale at Whitehall on October 11.