The saying may no longer be true for most professional sports, but defense still wins championships at the high school level.

The Emmaus field hockey team proved it during its state playoff run. The Hornets allowed one goal over their final three games en route to their 15th state title.

“I’m thrilled,” said Hornet goal keeper Emma Cari after Tuesday’s 2-0 semifinal win over defending state champ Lower Dauphin. “I know the feeling. It’s exciting to have it one last time my senior year. It feels great. I’m so proud of everyone on my team today.”

Cari stopped eight shots in the semifinal and kept the Falcons from converting on any of their six penalty corners. She’s allowed just 11 goals the entire season while posting 19 shuts outs.

A senior in her third season as the Hornets’ starter, Cari played what might have been her best game of the season in the semifinal.

“At practice every day she’s going against a great offense that puts a lot of hard shots on her, so it wasn’t unexpected,” said Emmaus head coach SueButz Stavin. “For her to track the ball today, she did an awesome job back there for us.”

Emmaus took an early 1-0 lead in the semifinal on Melea Weber’s unassisted goal just over four minutes into the game.

Trailing 1-0, the Falcons did their best to get the equalizer. Through the second and third quarters they seemed to wrest momentum away from the Hornets. They earned four corners and took five shots over that span, but none got past Cari or the Hornet defense.

“Our coaches teach us that there are going to be units in the game when we’re going to play defensively or we’re going to play offensively,” said Cari. “Throughout the second and third quarters they had offensive units on us, which means we had to step up our defense. My defensive unit today played a fantastic game. My defensive corner unit really stepped up. We had a lot of adjusting to do and we did it.”

The Emmaus corner defense, along with Cari, includes Autum Kernechel, Jordyn Poll, Morgann Orobono and Avery Burnett, with Weber also subbing in for some plays. Also contributing to the defense are backs Autunm Held and Sarah Schaffer, and midfielders Haley Kvacky and Sharlise Solano.

The Hornets allowed just one goal in their 7-1 state quarterfinal win over Wyoming Valley West, then shut out their next two opponents as they beat Manheim Township 1-0 in Saturday’s state title game.

While strong defense was one theme for the Hornets in the state playoffs, another was Weber converting penalty strokes. She was awarded two in the quarterfinals and another in the semifinal and made all three.

The stroke in the semifinal came with no time on the clock in the third quarter and swung momentum back to the Emmaus side.

“When I got the penalty stroke I was like’ yes, I need to make this,’” said Weber. “I was thinking this is a game-changer if I make this goal. This could decide the game. I knew I had to make it for my teammates.

“Playing for Hailey [Cook], our teammate who can’t be on the field with us. It just means a lot to us to be in the final game.”

Emmaus dedicates every game to Cook, who was part of last year’s team and would have been a senior this season. She battled leukemia until it took her life in June.