For just the second time this season, Emmaus allowed a goal in a field hockey game when Downingtown East picked up a second-half goal in a 4-1 loss to the Hornets.

The 11-game shutout streak covered 11 hours, 44 minutes and 53 seconds of game time between goals from the time that Parkland’s Jenna Lysakowski scored in the opening game of the season until Jess Wilcox scored for the Cougars.

The nonconference win moved Emmaus to 13-0 overall this season. The Hornets are 10-0 in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference this season. Emmaus has now won 40 straight games, including the postseason. In regular season contests, they’ve gone 74-0-1 since their last defeat, which came at Liberty on September 24, 2012.

“We put a lot of balls into the scoring area, but didn’t finish and had a lot of opportunities on post and didn’t finish, so that’s an area that we just need to continue to work on,” said coach Sue Butz-Stavin. “We moved the ball and played good defense, although we did have that one defensive meltdown, but it’s a 4-1 victory against a very good team.”

Downingtown East comes out of the rough and tumble District One and played in the PIAA semifinals last season, where it lost to Palmyra, who Emmaus defeated to win the state championship.

Against the Cougars, Emmaus got four goals from senior Meredith Sholder, with assists from Kayla Kisthardt, Joy Muller and Maddie Dorn.

“They play the ball hard and try to get tips inside of their scoring box area,” said Butz-Stavin of Downingtown’s style of play. “I think it’s good [to play against tough District One teams] for postseason play.”

For a younger team with a lot of new faces in starting roles, Emmaus has been able to carry on its impressive streak and doesn’t seem to have lost a beat from last year’s undefeated championship team.

“We have a sophomore keeper in versus a senior last year,” said Butz-Stavin. “Our outside backs are new, outside right-mid is new, so we’re still in growing pains right now. We’re still taking one baby step at a time.”

Even with the success, Butz-Stavin sees some things that her team needs to clean up between now and the postseason. She wasn’t happy with its performance in a 2-0 win over up-and-coming Parkland last week and had some concerns about her team’s play against Downingtown East.

“We played better than Parkland, but we were not playing as sharp as we were about three weeks ago,” Butz-Stavin said. “I really feel that we’re a better team, but we’re not protecting the ball. We’re turning the ball over and our footwork is too fast.

“Those are simple things and just sloppy play that we need to take care of.”

Emmaus plays at Whitehall (6-4, 8-4) tomorrow before facing a tough nonconference match against Owen J. Roberts (7-2, 9-3) on Saturday.