Revenge was in the air last Thursday night for the Emmaus field hockey team.

Meredith Sholder netted the game-winning goal two minutes and thirty seconds into the first overtime period to give the Hornets a 1-0 win over Stroudsburg in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship game at the Zephyr Sports Complex at Whitehall High School.

The win by the Green Hornets made up for a loss last year at the hands of the Mounties in the league title game.

Emmaus (20-0 overall) took the title back this year thanks to Sholder, who actually made up for an earlier miss that could have won the game at an earlier period for the Green Hornets.

Stroudsburg (19-2 overall) goalie Morgan Dempsey stopped a Sholder penalty stroke just about a minute into overtime, something that doesn’t happen too often to the MVP of the league.

“I’ve taken a ton of strokes this season,” said Sholder. “And I can’t remember missing one. I wasn’t going to flub another one [in overtime]. It’s amazing to win the title back. It feels so good to win it with my teammates.”

The junior made the best of the overtime scoring opportunity, which turned out to be a big one.

Fellow All-EPC First-Team member Alicia Cooperman ripped a pass into the box that found the stick of Sholder. She took a turn to the right, hesitated for a split second, then fired home the winner as the Green Hornets converged in celebration.

“This was an exciting championship game for both teams,” said head coach Sue Butz-Stavin. “It was back-and-forth in the midfield. Both teams had opportunities on corners. Both teams played stellar defense, and both goalies came up with big saves. What more could you ask for?”

These two teams know each other well. This was the second straight victory for Emmaus over the Mounties, as they beat them in the District 11 final last year after losing to them in the conference final.

Each team had chances to find the back of the net throughout the game, but Dempsey (6 saves) and Green Hornet goalie Paige Garloff (5 saves) prevented any damage.

Emmaus outshot Stroudsburg 10-5, and the Mounties held a 7-5 edge in corners.

The win also clinched the top seed in the District 11 tournament which begins this week. The Green Hornets open Thursday against the winner of Tuesday’s Bangor-Northampton game.