Emmaus girls lacrosse head coach Nancy DeBellis has high goals for her team in 2016. And it shows when looking at the schedule. Two of the first three games this season were against high-caliber teams from outside of the area.

The first one, an 8-5 loss at Wilson West Lawn last Wednesday, did not go the way the Hornets had hoped. But they were back at it last Friday afternoon against Central Bucks East.

In an offensive showing for both teams, the Patriots outlasted Emmaus (1-2) 19-15 at Emmaus High School.

“That’s why we play them,” said DeBellis on the nonconference games. “It exposes a lot of things for us that we see we need to work on. These games also give us a different experience playing against great competition, that will help us prepare for the conference and District 11 opponents.”

CB East scored the first two goals of the game and had eight different players record goals.

But not to be outdone, the Green Hornets had six players score, and kept pace with the Patriots for much of the game.

After Melanie Burian and Maggie Vetter broke through within the first two minutes of the contest, senior captain Grace Sullivan got Emmaus on the board with the first of her two goals.

The two teams went punch for punch, trading goals back-and-forth for much of the game. The score was tied at four when senior captain Destanee Watkins found the back of the net. But then CB East scored three straight and held a 10-8 lead at halftime.

“When we’re all on board and doing what we’re supposed to be doing, we can do some really good things,” said DeBellis. “I saw some great transition and great teamwork, but there’s just some sloppiness that we have to clean up. I think it’s going to get better.”

The Patriots’ Riley Donnelly opened up the scoring in the second half, but that was followed by three straight goals from Emmaus. Junior Maddy Dorn tallied four consecutive goals in the half.

When Watkins recorded her fourth of the game and second of the half with six minutes left, the score was tied at 15. But the Patriots struck last with four goals to end the game.

“We just have to finish the game and take care of the ball,” DeBellis said. “When we have so many turnovers like we did today that is going to hurt us. It’s a possession game, and when we had possession more often than not we put it in the net. But when they had possession they were able to score. We just have to have good passing and take care of the ball.”

Dorn finished with six goals. Freshmen Claire Nielsen, sophomore Paige Weaver, and junior Kendelle Conrad all contributed goals for Emmaus.

Watkins added four assists, and Holly Brinkman also had an assist.