Emmaus girls soccer team suffered a tough loss to Whitehall Monday night, dropping a 3-0 decision to the Zephyrs. The loss dropped Emmaus to 5-5 in the EPC and 5-7 overall on the season.

Emmaus had won three of its last four contests coming into the game, picking up a pair of 9-0 wins over Freedom and Pocono Mountain West and beating East Stroudsburg 7-0. The only loss during the 3-1 stretch was a 1-0 game at Pleasant Valley.

“It’s nice to get a couple wins in a week and not have to look back on a losing week,” said coach Sarah Oswald. “Getting some wins under our belt has given us some confidence. Now, we just have to be able to compete against the teams that have winning records and show well against those teams.”

Whitehall would be one of those tougher teams that Oswald was talking about. The Lady Zephyrs are now 8-0-1 both in the EPC and overall this season, making them one of the stronger teams on the schedule.

For Emmaus to go 3-2 over the last ten days is especially impressive, since the team has been without some players who violated team rules. The rest of the squad has picked up the slack and continues to look ahead to finishing the season strong.

Over their last five games, the Hornets have outscored their opponents by a total of 25-4. Through their first seven games, Emmaus held just a slight 13-11 advantage in goals scored.

“The kids are understanding the system a little more,” said Oswald. “They’re playing with each other and learning to do the things that we asked them to do originally. As time goes on, they’re getting used to each other and doing what the coaching staff is asking, as far as what we want to do on the attack. We’ve been more successful in scoring goals.”

Emmaus has a tough road ahead with each of its six remaining games against division foes. The Hornets still haven’t played Central Catholic (7-3, 9-3), meaning that they have two meetings remaining with the Vikettes. Rematches against Whitehall, Nazareth (7-2-1, 8-3-1), Northampton (2-5-2, 2-6-2) and division leader Parkland (11-0, 11-1) are also on the schedule.

Emmaus went 1-3 against those teams in their first meetings, but with improved confidence and faith in the system, they’ll look to possibly turn around the results the second time through.

Oswald is facing a challenge that has been persistent in the girls soccer program, pretty much since her playing career ended with the 2006 season.

“The biggest thing that we’ve struggled with, not just this season, but in year’s past, is having someone who is just a goal scorer, a natural goal scorer, someone who just has a knack for taking every opportunity that they get and making it a successful one,” she said. “We haven’t had someone able to just go out and score goals.”

The tough string of games begins tonight at home against Central Catholic, continues Saturday when the Hornets host Nazareth before heading to Northampton for a game on Tuesday.