During the regular season, Whitehall pulled off a bit of a surprise when they beat Emmaus 3-1.

Tuesday night, in the first round of the District 11 playoffs, the fact that they beat Emmaus again was less of a surprise, but how dominating they were in the 5-0 victory was a little surprising.

A little over ten minutes into the game, Kylee Cunningham had a breakaway opportunity and fired a shot past Emmaus goalkeeper Kay Gustafson for the first goal of the night, giving the Zephyrs a quick 1-0 lead.

Head coach George Romano believes that his team's fast start is simply a result of hard work and how his team progressed during the season.

"It's the way we've been playing and what we've been training to do," explained Romano. "We started off slow this season, but watching the way we progressed, I'm very happy with what I saw tonight; they executed the plays well."

Kylee Cunningham scored two goals on the night, while big sister Kourtney Cunningham scored one.

Jen Davis and Korin Koehler each scored a goal as well in Whitehall's impressive win. Goalkeeper Jude Luckenbill was barely challenged, especially in the first-half of the game, thanks to a Whitehall offense that kept constant pressure on Emmaus at the other end of the field.

A streaky Zephyrs team endured a three-game losing skid early in the season only to come back with a three-game win streak to find themselves at 6-6.

From there, a 4-2 finish left them qualified for districts, but on the outside looking in for the Lehigh Valley Conference playoffs. While Romano is disappointed in the slow start, he believes his team could be getting stronger at just the right time.

"I thought that we would have done that early in the season," said Romano of his team's strong play. "I'm disappointed that we weren't involved in the conference playoffs, but that happened to us the last time that we went to the state finals, we didn't get in the conference, but then we came back and played well, so hopefully, this can be a repetition of that."

In order to make history repeat itself, the Zephyrs will have to get past top-seeded Stroudsburg in the quarter-final round this afternoon. While it's not an easy task for a number nine seed to knock off the top-seed, it's not out of the question.

It looks like even more of a possibility because Whitehall lost a hard-fought, 1-0 game to the Mounties in Stroudsburg during the regular season.

It helps that a number of players have been playing well for Whitehall, including freshman Kylee Cunningham, who Romano believes has developed well this season.

"Kylee has been playing well. When she started, she was very slow, because she was a freshman, but getting the hits that she has over these games helps her play the way she does," said Romano of the latest member of the Cunningham family to come through the girls soccer program at Whitehall.