The Emmaus boys soccer team hoped to go through the East Penn Conference portion of its schedule in perfect fashion, with no losses and without even allowing a goal.

The only team standing in the way of that goal was Parkland as the Hornets closed out their regular season schedule last week against the Trojans. When the final horn sounded, Emmaus did in fact make it through the season undefeated in league play, but a late goal by Parkland ended the shutout streak as Emmaus took a 3-1 win to take the top seed going into the league playoffs.

Emmaus had a streak of 16 straight shutouts coming into the finale against the Trojans and a zero against Parkland would have given them the state record for consecutive shutouts. Emmaus lost its season opener to Cumberland Valley by a 3-1 score and since then had outscored opponents 80-0.

Parkland controlled the play for much of the first half, but was unable to put together any sustained pressure once it got into the Emmaus zone and when it did, goalie Colin Wilson was there to make a stop.

Emmaus made the most of an early opportunity when Ryan Kiernan centered a pass to Elijah Miller, who put a solid shot on goal to beat goalkeeper Zach Ironside and give the Hornets a 1-0 lead just 10 minutes into the game. Right after the goal, Parkland went back on the attack, but came up empty.

Emmaus found a higher gear for the second half and sophomore Canyon Reinhardt found himself in position to set up a couple teammates for goals.

The first goal came off a pass to Kai Mattern, who was positioned directly in front of the goal and from 10 yards out, trickled a shot past Ironside to take a 2-0 advantage.

Just five-minutes later, Reinhardt found himself among a group of players and was able to pop the ball out to Ethan Ervin, who put up a shot from 25 yards out with perfect positioning for some insurance for the Hornets as they held a 3-0 lead going into the final four minutes of play.

“Going into the half we were only up 1-0, so we had to keep raising our level of play and not let down at all. We just kept playing really well,” said Rinehart.

“That was crazy,” said Ervin of the goal. “I saw the ball pop out and I thought, I have to take it. It would have been a wasted opportunity to not try to make that shot even though I wasn’t in the best position. It was just amazing.”

Emmaus (16-0-1 EPC, 16-1-1 overall) went into the league playoffs as the top seed, bumping Parkland (16-1-0, 16-2-0) down to the number-two seed. While it might not seem like much of a change, Emmaus coach John Cari sees how the top spot could benefit his team.

“No disrespect to Liberty or Freedom because they are both good teams,” said Emmaus head coach John Cari. “Liberty is really improved and are a good team and Freedom gave us a lot to handle, but us, Northampton, and Parkland have all been ranked in the state, so if we can avoid one of them, I’ll take it. Parkland will be on the other side of the bracket, so there is a little bit of an advantage.”

Sam Masenheimer added a late goal for Parkland to make it a 3-1 game. Parkland coach Scott Mang gave the Emmaus defense a tip of the hat for their defensive efforts.

“They’re the best defensive team we have seen all year, maybe one of the best defensive teams we have ever seen,” said Parkland coach Scott Mang of Emmaus. “We passed the ball pretty well but they were very tough to crack and they beat us. They won every head ball and we got a little panicked. They brought the sauce tonight.”

Emmaus opened the East Penn Conference playoff Monday evening with a surprising loss to eight seed Whitehall on penalty kicks. The Hornet defense was once again strong, posting another shut out in regulation and holding the Zephyrs scoreless in two overtimes.

Whitehall converted all five of its penalty kicks to take the shootout 5-4.

The Hornets will advance to the District 11 Class 4A playoffs and will likely be one of the top two seeds in that event, which begins next week.