The Lady Zephyrs had their perfect 9-0 start ended in a 1-0 double overtime loss to Emmaus Tuesday night. Peyton Ritter scored the only goal of the game with 3:02 left in the second overtime to give Emmaus (6-3-1 overall, 6-2-1 EPC) the victory. Even with the loss, Whitehall hangs onto their lead in the Skyline Division of the EPC thanks to Parkland (8-2-1, 7-1-1) and Nazareth (8-1-2, 6-1-2) playing to a 1-1 draw.

Both teams had their share of opportunities and the momentum of the game swung back-and-forth throughout the nearly 97-minutes that the two teams played. For a few seconds, it appeared that the Zephyrs had grabbed a 1-0 lead with 6:30 left in regulation when Kylee Cunningham fired a shot past Emmaus freshman goalkeeper Jessica Harnett, but the referees ruled that Whitehall was off-sides on the play.

"My argument was that there was a deflection that hit off of the defender and put her [Cunningham] in. The referees explained to me that in high school rules that they don't use the deflection like in USSF [United States Soccer Federation] soccer, which I'll have to go back and take a look at, because Kylee did a nice job of putting that ball in the back of the net. Those things happen, but if we take care of business, it's not in the referee's hands and that's on us," said coach Dave Weitzman of the call.

Weitzman looked pastThe disputed goal and some missed opportunities allowed Emmaus to get away with a couple of mistakes during the game.

"I thought we let Emmaus off the hook at times. They played well tonight and they stayed right with us, but that's a game we should have finished," admitted Weitzman. "Earlier in the game, we had chances around the face of the goal and we didn't capitalize on it."

Weitzman, who is in his first season at the helm of the team, believes that both teams played hard and missed some opportunities, but also believes that the two teams could be seeing much more of each other this season and not just because they have a regular season rematch on October 7th.

"It's a learning tool for us and we've got to go back and look at the things that we've really got to improve on and it's good that it happened now and hopefully, we get to see them again in the district playoff; I know we'll see them again in the regular season at our place. These things happen and it's part of us growing up as a team and this will help us grow," said Weitzman.

Having outscored their opponents 41-1 coming into the game against Emmaus, Whitehall had very good reason to think about going undefeated. That dream may have been ruined, but some coaches believe that a loss or two along the way can actually serve to make a team stronger going into the post-season and Weitzman is hoping that may be the case with his team as they work their way through the second half of the season.

"I think the girls need to realize that we're just coming out of the infancy stages of creating our team and developing our team under a new coach and a new philosophy, so it's okay," Weitzman explained. "I'm not unhappy with their effort. I thought they played really hard and I thought we played good soccer when we had to, but I think there are things that I'll go over with each one of the players and I'll explain to them how they do certain things in moments in that game that would have put us on the winning end of that instead of on the losing end."