Easton dominated Tuesday’s Eastern Pennsylvania Conference boys lacrosse final with a 12-4 victory over a red-hot Emmaus team last week at Northampton High School.

Emmaus went 17-1 in the regular season and undefeated in EPC play coming into the game. The two teams faced each other during the regular season and Emmaus came out with a 9-7 victory, but it was a much different game this time around.

Easton wasted no time in scoring and took control of the game early on.

“Easton had a great game,” Emmaus head coach Justin Fuhrman said. “When they executed and we don’t, maybe it’s a little closer. Different mindset going forward. It was a great regular season anyway. Undefeated in the EPC, but the only thing that matters is the game here tonight. When the lights were the brightest, we didn’t show up the way we wanted to.”

Easton erupted for four goals in the first nine minutes of the game and led 4-0 going into the second quarter. Emmaus standout Will Barber got the Green Hornets on the board in the second quarter with a score.

“Sometimes it happens and we just have to watch the film and figure out where we could’ve adjusted a little bit early on in that game to not let it get out of control the way it did,” Fuhrman said. “Once it got out of control, it’s hard to fight back and we didn’t even do that.”

Barber scored two goals for Emmaus and has been undoubtedly the best player on the team. Easton was able to limit Barber to the two goals and Emmaus wasn’t able to respond after the Red Rovers took the early lead.

“We’ve got to work on us right now,” Fuhrman said. “It’s very clear tonight that it doesn’t matter who we play that if we don’t show up, we’re going to get beat and our season will be over.”

After the loss, the Emmaus season isn’t over yet with a trip to the district playoffs in hand. The only loss of the regular season came to Wilson West Lawn in a 9-8 double overtime game.

Emmaus can make a turnaround in the opening round of districts and can continue its season with a well-executed game with their next opponent.

The boys lacrosse district tournament includes District 2 teams. Because of that, conference champs do not get preferred seeding. Emmaus earned the No. 1 seed in the District 2/11 playoffs and faced No. 4 Parkland (13-6) in the semifinal round Tuesday. That game was played after Press deadline. See next week’s issue for results.

Parkland beat No. 5 Freedom in a quarterfinal game last week, 18-16. On the other side of the bracket, No. 3 Easton (15-4) beat Nazareth 17-6 to reach the semifinals where it will take on No. 2 Delaware Valley, which had a bye in the quarterfinals along with Emmaus.

The boys lacrosse finals are slated for Thursday at 7 p.m. at Lehigh University.