Emmaus figured its defense would have to play well to leave Cottingham Stadium with a victory, a place it hasn’t won at in years. But it’s hard to imagine the Hornets knew how great their defense would actually play last Friday night against Easton.

The Hornets allowed just one Red Rover touchdown in a 17-6 win last Friday night. The victory propelled the Hornets to 8-1 in the East Penn Conference and to the top of the District 11 Class 6A standings with a .793 rating. Only Pleasant Valley (.711) and Parkland (.703) are close to Emmaus, which is now one of two 8-1 teams in the EPC and had the top seed in districts all but locked up.

“It’s awesome to come into such a great stadium and a great football town, and come out with a win,” said defensive end Kyle Carraher. “It took everything tonight. It felt spectacular.”

Carraher played both ways early in the season at tight end and defensive end, but head coach Harold Fairclough decided to have him focus on the defensive line in recent weeks. Since then he’s been one of the top players on a dominant unit. He didn’t disappoint against the Red Rovers, recording two sacks in the first half.

Easton started with the ball, but just two plays into the game all of Cottingham Stadium got to see what the Hornets’ defense was all about.

Easton quarterback Ben Nimeh’s first throw was intercepted by Aaron Figueroa deep in Red Rover territory. Three plays later, Lubens Myers reaped the benefits with a 17-yard touchdown run to put Emmaus in front 7-0.

“The early lead was huge,” Fairclough said. “It was something we talked about all week, getting out to a fast start and finishing strong and playing a complete game. The last two weeks we got ourselves in a hole and we started out slow.”

The Hornets drove down the field on their next drive and Carson Landis’ 41-yard field goal put Emmaus ahead 10-0 not even four minutes into the game.

Easton’s lone touchdown came two possessions later when Nimeh took a bootleg run 15 yards into the end zone to get the Red Rovers on the scoreboard. The score was set up by a special teams play.

“That punt return set that [Easton touchdown] up, and our defense played lights out,” Fairclough said. “My hat goes off to [Emmaus defensive coordinator Sam] Seneca and the staff. They put together a great game plan.”

Nimeh carved the Hornets’ defense with a number of option runs in the first half, tallying 81 yards on 13 carries. But the second half was another story after the Hornets adjusted.

Led by Carraher, Emmaus allowed Nimeh to just three yards on the ground. Six of his 10 rushing attempts resulted in negative yards, including a key tackle for a nine-yard loss by Joseph Barno on the Rovers’ last possession.

“At halftime we made a bunch of adjustments just because that was the one thing that was killing us,” Carraher said. “We stopped their normal run game for the most part besides their quarterback. To be honest, that’s not what we were really focusing on, but we had to adjust and I think we did a pretty good job adjusting to it down the stretch.”

Fairclough also preached the importance of his team’s ability to adapt on the go.

“We just had to make a couple of adjustments,” Fairclough said. “They were running some option that we had to adjust to. He’s a tough, typical Easton kid. We figured it’s Easton and they are going to try and pound the ball, so that’s what we prepared for. We made some adjustments on the fly there.”

Sone Ntoh put the Hornets in front 17-6 late in the third quarter when he took a third-down run 77 yards to the house. That put Ntoh (145 yards) over 100 rushing yards, while his running mate, Myers, was close behind with 131 yards. The sophomore tandem out-gained the entire Easton offense, which was held to 205 yards in the game.

“It’s crazy because they are still so young and they’re still making mistakes,” said Fairclough. “But when they do things the right way and our line and everybody is on the same page up front, man they can go. They can go and good things can happen.”

Next week will be another chapter in the s Emmaus-Parkland rivalry. The Hornets can clinch the top seed in Class 6A with a win, but even with a loss they are likely to hang onto the top spot of the Trojans and Pleasant Valley and earn home games for the first two weeks of the playoffs. This year’s district title games will be held at neutral sites.