For much of the season, most folks thought the District 11 boys soccer championship would come down to Emmaus and Parkland. Southern Lehigh wasn't very involved in the discussion, but the Spartans beat both of the favorites on their way to winning their first district title since becoming a Class AAA school.

Southern Lehigh downed Emmaus 2-1 in last week's title game, with all three of the goals coming in a span of 1:39. It started with Southern Lehigh's Ryan Fowler firing a shot past goalkeeper Ethan Lang with 22:39 left to play in the first half.

From there, Alex Sabram of Southern Lehigh made it 2-0 and just 18 seconds later, Parker Landis scored for Emmaus, hoping to halt the Spartans' momentum.

"I didn't think we got down at all and we proved that by coming right back with that goal," said Emmaus head coach John Cari. "We knew all along that we were right in this thing and we didn't hang our heads at all. There's no reason to hang our heads, they're a good team."

Landis had an eventful day, not only scoring the Hornets' only goal, but he clanked one off the crossbar in the second half, just missing tying the game. Landis also received a yellow card for elbowing a Southern Lehigh player. Cari believed that the officiating could have been better, especially on a key play in the second half when he thought his team deserved a penalty kick on a play in the box.

"I thought we had opportunities to equalize this game," he said. "I thought there were three opportunities and the third one, from behind, has to be a call. I can't control that, you've just got to keep fighting through that."

Cari will lose seven seniors Ben Bezems, Alec Francello, Phil Houseknect, Kyle Jaeger, Landis, Greg Lind and Lang to graduation, but he believes that there will be enough talent remaining for his team to again be one of the favorites next season. He also believes that the tough loss is something that will make his remaining players fight even harder.

"We bring back a core of these kids and we'll come back stronger remembering it [the loss]," said Cari. "It's a hard thing, three times in the district final, losing three times in a row, that's tough, but we'll be okay and we'll be stronger for it."

Emmaus finishes the season at 21-2-0 and with an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship. Southern Lehigh is now 17-6-1 and moves onto the PIAA Tournament, which begins this week. The Spartans won four Class AA district titles in five seasons prior to moving to Class AAA after the 2009-2010 school year.