Emmaus football 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 three games, the defense wasn’t in the spotlight much this season. That changed in Friday’s 50-7 win over Northampton.

Emmaus held the Kids to just 78 yards of offense (17 rushing, 61 passing). The Hornet defense forced six punts and the Kids’ offense scoreless as their 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. “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.”

Northampton, which entered the game with eight starters injured and left the game with two more on the list.

The Kids made a few plays early in the game before the unbeaten Hornets took over in the second half.

“Offensively we’ve got to move the ball,” said Northampton head coach mark Scisly. “We got beat up front tonight. Their defense gave us all sorts of trouble blocking them. We have to do a better job up front next week.

“Defensively we were OK at times but we have got to be more consistent.”

Northampton’s defense held Emmaus scoreless for the Hornets’ first two possessions drives, forcing a punt and a turnover. However, the Hornets opened the scoring when their punt pinned the Kids at their own 3-yard line.

Justin Monte recovered an Emmaus fumble to get Northampton the ball back three plays later, but the Hornets forced a punt.

Monte made another big play in the second quarter when he picked off a Derek Sheaffer pass and took it 27 yards for Northampton’s only points of the game.

Northampton managed just five first downs in the game, all in the first half. Seven first half possessions ended with six punts and one safety.

Emmaus scored on three of its next four possessions to take a 22-7 lead into halftime. The Hornets could have gone ahead by three more points but Tyrese Brandon blocked a field goal attempt to end the first half.

The Hornets (5-0) scored touchdowns on all four of their second-half possessions.

The Kids (0-5) could have kept the game closer, but missed tackles, dropped passes and other mistakes haunted them throughout the contest.

“We’re missing a ton of kids,” said Scisly. “We’re playing a lot of young kids.

We’re trying to get better each week. We did some things better tonight. We have a long ways to go and our goal is to get better each week.

“I think we hit rock bottom when we lost to Beca a couple weeks ago. Since then I think we’ve responded and gotten better each week.”

Scisly said he was happy with a few players’ performances in the game, including Monte, a senior defensive back. He said sophomore Aiden Jones looked good in his first start at safety, while junior defensive linemen Zach Liggitt and Jordan Siegfried also played well against Emmaus.

“Our guys are giving what they’ve got out there,” said Scisly. “They’ve just got to be more consistent and put together a complete game.”

Northampton takes on Nazareth next week. The Blue Eagles (2-3) are coming off a 42-7 win over East Stroudsburg South. They have also beaten Whitehall, but have lost to Pleasant Valley, Parkland and Bethlehem Catholic.