The Emmaus High School football team clinched a spot in the District 11 playoffs two weeks ago after a 21-6 victory over Liberty at home. But the Green Hornets head into the postseason on a two-game losing streak after falling in the regular season finale last Friday night, losing 41-17 to rival Parkland in an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference South Division game at Parkland School District Stadium.

Emmaus (5-5 overall) fell behind early, trailing 14-3 at halftime and then 21-3 a little over two minutes into the third quarter. The Green Hornets found some life in that quarter with two touchdowns, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Trojans (10-0), who were crowned conference champions following the game.

“We had some really good moments, but when you are going up against a team like Parkland, you need a lot more of them,” said head coach Harold Fairclough. “We’ll take some good away from this for sure. We got a little momentum in the second half offensively. Defensively, they just exploited some of our weak spots. [Connor] Johns was a tough matchup for us, but he’s a tough matchup for everyone.”

Parkland senior wide receiver Connor Johns had a breakout game catching three touchdown passes from Luke Spang. Spang also threw a TD pass to Trey Tremba in the first quarter and ran for a score in the second.

Will Buck’s 38-yard field goal was the lone scoring of the first half for Emmaus. In the third quarter, Jasiyah Banks found the end zone from 25 yards away for the first touchdown of the game for the Green Hornets. Later in the third, Jerek Cooper connected with Rafael Terrero for a 63-yard catch and score to push the deficit to 35-17.

Following the game, the Western Lehigh Exchange Club named Cooper the offensive MVP for Emmaus and Mario Landio the defensive MVP for the Green Hornets, who had won three of the last four meetings in the rivalry, including 40-25 last season.

Emmaus is the fifth seed and will play at the fourth seed, Freedom, on Friday night at Bethlehem Area School District stadium.

“I told our kids that when we wake up tomorrow morning, we’re 0-0 again,” Fairclough said. “The 10 games in the regular season are over. We’re not getting them back. So, we have to move forward and earn every week we can from here on out.”