Emmaus football head coach Harold Fairclough said during the preseason that his team’s strength would be its defense.

With the Hornets averaging over 52 points per game in their first four games, the defense hasn’t been in the spotlight much this season.

In Friday’s 50-7 win over Northampton, the green swarm showed what it could do, especially in the second half.

Emmaus held the Kids to just 78 yards of offense (17 rushing, 61 passing). The Hornet defense forced six punts and pitched a shut out as Northampton’s only touchdown came on an interception return. The defense even scored the game’s first points as Emmaus’ Blake Reed tackled Kids running back Jared Stauffer for a safety with 7:04 left in the first quarter.

“They’re solid,” said Fairclough of the team’s defense. “They’re well coached. Sam [Seneca] does a great job with those guys and the rest of the defensive staff. We knew coming into the season that would kind of be our strong point. They’re getting overshadowed with all the points we’re putting up on offense but they’re just playing sound and that’s always a good thing.”

One of the team’s defensive leaders, linebacker Ben Maehrer, said that while he was happy with Friday’s performance, he knows the defense can get even better.

“We didn’t play too well in the first half,” he said. “We weren’t reading our keys. We weren’t doing our jobs. We went in the locker room and fixed those problem, came out and played better in the second half. But we still have a lot to work on.

“We have a lot of good players up front and in the secondary. When we do our job we can be really good but we still have some stuff to work on.”

The Hornets took a 22-7 lead into halftime then poured it on after intermission.

Sone Ntoh scored the Hornets’ first touchdown late in the first quarter on a 7-yard run.

After Justin Monte’s interception and 27-yard return got Northampton within 9-7, Emmaus quarterback Derek Sheaffer made up for throwing the pick by finding Ntoh for an 18-yard touchdown pass midway through the second quarter.

Lubens Myers’ 2-yard touchdown run secured a 22-7 lead at halftime, and the second half was all Emmaus.

Myers scored again, this time from five yards out with less than two minutes off the third-quarter clock. Ntoh added touchdown runs of 10 yards and one yard in the third quarter. And the Hornet junior varsity players took over in the fourth quarter as Mekhi Flannigan ran 37 yards for the game’s final touchdown.

The win moves Emmaus to 5-0 on the season. The Hornets have been the last undefeated left in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference for the past two weeks.

“It feels good to be on top, but being on top comes with a price,” said Maehrer. “Everybody is going to be coming for us. We have a big target on our back and we have to try to stay on top.

“To be honest [starting 5-0] is never something I thought about. Coming into this season we didn’t know what to expect. We have a younger team but we’ve got a great coaching staff. We have a lot of talent and we have a lot to give.”

Myers finished the game with 94 rushing yards on 15 carries. Ntoh has 70 yards on 13 totes.

Sheaffer completed 16 of 26 passes for 183 yards. Ryan Fritz caught six balls for 56 yards, while Josh Artis pulled in three for 53 yards.

On defense, Brian Mantone had two solo tackles and four assisted tackles. Kyle Carraher had three sole tackles for loss and one assisted tackle for a loss. Emmaus stuffed the Kids for negative yardage on nine offensive plays.

Kicker Cason Landis booted kick offs deep, ensuring either a touchback or short return. He also nailed six of seven extra points.

Emmaus hosts Freedom next week. The Patriots, which feature one of the league’s best quarterbacks in senior Joe Young, are 3-2. They’ve beaten Central Catholic (31-8), Allen (48-0) and Northampton (34-7) but have lost to Easton (27-20) and Parkland (17-0 last week).