The Whitehall boys soccer team didn’t have an easy time this year making the District 11 playoffs, and for while, it looked like they might not.

While the team did find their way in, they showed why they deserved to be there, winning their opening-round game and then giving top-seed and EPC champ Emmaus quite a scare. While the Zephs did lose to the Hornets to end their season, the stage has been set for next season.

“This year our kids battled all year. At one point in the season it looked like a very uphill battle to qualify for districts,” said head coach Christian Malone. “We got hit with the injury bug harder than in the past this year. The boys never gave up hope and never quit working, I was extremely proud of that. We knew what we had and that was a group that could compete with the best teams in the league.”

The boys finished the season winning seven of their last nine games, including five-straight wins and five of their last six games to get in as the nine seed. The boys upset eight-seed Pocono Mountain East with an overtime win and then gave Emmaus everything they had before falling 3-2, again in overtime.

“Emmaus was 16-1-1 and gave up minimal goals all year and we were able to convert two goals in a half against them and come back from down 2-0 at the half,” Malone said. “It ultimately wasn’t our night, but I felt very strongly about the performance we gave overall.

“I think how we battled back to make the second half of our season a success was exactly what I love about the Whitehall mentality. It’s that chip on our shoulder mentality to always give 110-percent. Every coach loves to use that storyline to motivate their guys and ours responded.”

The Zephs will lose three senior captains: Ramez Farrag, Aiden Taylor and Reed Felker, along with seniors: Eddie Saloum, Kenny Lu, Michael Nanoah, Musa Fofana, Alejandro Zuniga, Vladimir Garcia and John Hanna.

“They all can say they won the school’s first district championship together last year,” Malone said. “I know they had some great memories over the last few years together playing in our program.”

Malone now turns the page to next season.

“We have some guys I am very excited about for the future,” Malone said. “There are multiple, very strong juniors in Cole Richards, Juan Estaban, Benji Campbell, Said Alkhmos. They received a lot of varsity time this year. Juan was our leading scorer with 11 goals and Ben, although he was hampered with an injury early in the season, I feel he can be a breakout player next year with Said.

“Richards has been a staple in net since starting for us his sophomore year, and there is a lot of other players who with some of our early injuries this year got to experience getting varsity time that was great for them and their future.”

Malone said the JV team was successful in beating Parkland JV this year and did well in the JV tournament, including beating Emmaus. Malone added he is excited about the youth in the Whitehall program, and the team will continue to work hard in the offseason to prepare for next fall.