The Emmaus girls lacrosse team played with a lot of heart in reaching the district semifinals. But after knocking off last year’s district champ, the Hornets couldn’t get past a three-time defending league champ that’s on a mission to get back the district title.

A thrilling 8-7 overtime win over defending District 11 champion Southern Lehigh last Thursday showed just how this Green Hornets can play on any given night.

Sophomore Paige Weaver scored the game-winner 1:13 into overtime.

“I thought the girls played with a lot of heart,” said Hornet head coach Nancy DeBellis. “It was a big win for our program and I know the girls really wanted that one. It was a nice moment, and I’m really proud of the way they played.”

But the momentum did not carry over to the next game, as sloppy play and missed opportunities on the offensive end led to a 14-9 defeat to Parkland Monday in the District 11 semifinals at Northampton High School. It was Emmaus’ third straight loss to the Trojans this season.

“They’re the number one seed for a reason,” said DeBellis. “They may not have won districts last year, but they won our league the last couple of years and are a great program. They were the better team tonight.”

Parkland (16-5 overall) looked like it had no rust after waiting a week since it’s last game. Emmaus (12-9 overall) looked a step behind.

After the two teams traded goals in the early minutes, the Trojans scored twice to go up by two.

Sophomore Lizzy Ninesling got the Green Hornets back in the scoring column with 19:44 left in the first half. But that was the last goal Emmaus scored for 12 minutes. During that drought, Parkland took an 8-3 lead.

Even after senior captain Grace Sullivan scored with 7:49 to go, the Trojans added two more before halftime to take a 10-3 advantage into the break.

“We had a lot of mental errors,” DeBellis said. “We dropped some passes, we missed shots on goal, we just didn’t look ourselves. And I didn’t understand it because of the way we played [our last game] against Southern Lehigh.”

Even with a large margin to battle back from, the Green Hornets did not give up.

Freshman Taylor O’Brien had the first goal of the second half. Parkland scored three straight, but then Emmaus followed suit.

Ninesling, Maddy Dorn, and Casey Patton showed the Green Hornets grit. Eastern Pennsylvania Conference MVP Destanee Watkins scored the final two goals of the game.

It was the eighth straight districts appearance for Emmaus, who advanced a round further than a year ago when they fell to Moravian Academy in the quarterfinals.

“I’m proud of these three seniors (Sullivan, Watkins and Morgan Schantz),” DeBellis said. “They had great careers and fought hard for us each game.”