Emmaus girls soccer opened its season with games on back-to-back days, and unfortunately for the Hornets, they weren’t able to pick up a win in either game.

In the opener against Eastern Pennsylvania Conference rival Easton, Emmaus fell 2-1 and followed that up with a 4-0 loss to Central Bucks East on Saturday. CB East made it to the PIAA Class AAA semifinals last season and has the core of its team back on the field for this season.

Emmaus is also playing a number of young players who are still adjusting to the speed and the intensity of varsity soccer, so there are bound to be some growing pains, especially against teams like Central Bucks East.

“I think it’s part of the speed of play that the varsity level brings for some of these kids,” said head coach Sarah Oswald. “And that’s a very good Central Bucks East team. They play in District One, where all of the games are competitive and it’s a fast pace and we don’t get to see that often in our league. I think it’s just a matter of intensity and the pace of the game that’s concerning for some of our kids.”

Against CB East, Emmaus fell behind quickly. Hannah Zach struck with the Patriots first goal just over three-minutes into the game. It was less than five minutes later when Delaney Kennedy would put hear team up 2-0 on an end-line pass from Emma Loving. CB East used that same type of play to tally each of its next two goals, which Oswald found to be very frustrating.

“The most frustrating is the defensive aspect, because we’ve had some breakdowns,” said Oswald. “The first goal was unfortunate. It was just some miscommunication with our goalkeeper. But they scored the next three goals the same way. Three out of the four goals were scored the same way and that’s just a lack of focus on defense.

“It’s frustrating because what we’ve talked about all summer and all preseason is defending as a team and when you give up four goals, it’s hard to get a goal back and come back and compete.”

It might be tempting for a young team that opens the season 0-2 to start to get down on itself and continue to struggle, but that’s not likely with Oswald at the helm. The former Emmaus standout player knows how to motivate players and is stressing to her team that it can’t focus on what’s already happened, they can only use it as a learning experience.

“You’ve just got to keep looking ahead and have a short memory,” said Oswald. “We have another game to play in two days and we have three games next week, so it’s got to be a short memory and after that. It’s a new day and a new game and we come out and put our best effort on the field.”

Even though the team has been outscored 6-1, Oswald has seen some positives and believes that the young team will be better as it gains a little more experience. She’s also seen some positive things from the young players that the team can build upon. In fact, Oswald is already seeing young players start to adjust to playing at the varsity level.

“The freshman that we have, Bella Kober, I think she’s adjusting very well to the speed of play and the intensity that it takes,” said Oswald. “She came out and played well [Friday] and played well [Saturday] and she’ll definitely continue to grow,” Oswald noted.

The Lady Hornets have two conference games this week against Dieruff and Freedom and a non-conference game against a tough Wilson West Lawn team on Saturday. Next week starts with a tough conference game against Nazareth, so there’s a lot of work to do for the young Emmaus team.