It all came down to one play and one yard. The Hornets needed to hold Parkland from gaining one yard in one play.

And when the Emmaus defense, led by Jared Skibinski and many others, swarmed onto Parkland running back Jahan Worth as soon as he got to the line of scrimmage, the Hornets stuffed the bruising back on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line to secure a 24-21 win in double overtime and the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference South Division crown last Friday night at East Penn School District stadium. It is Emmaus’ first outright league championship since 1972, when they won a Lehigh Valley League title.

Emmaus’ last league title of any kind came in 1981 when it earned a three-way share with Dieruff and Phillipsburg in the East Penn League. A loss would have given the Trojans (7-3 overall) a share of the conference title, but Emmaus, the team that has consistently sat a top of the league standings, wasn’t going to share anything with one of it biggest rivals.

“There was just no way he was getting in,” said Skibinski, a senior linebacker. “No way. We weren’t going to let it happen. We knew he was going to get the ball. We just had to stop him.”

Fittingly enough, Emmaus took a three-point lead on a field goal by Carson Landis before the defense stood firm. The last time the Green Hornets defeated Parkland was during the 2011 season, when kicker Dalton Landis, the older brother of Carson, drilled the game-winner.

“I was hoping to repeat what my brother did, and it’s just crazy that it happened,” Landis said. “I’m just happy I was able to contribute to the win.”

Landis may have had his hand in the game-winning score, but it was a team victory. Everyone from the defensive front that stuffed Worth on the goal line, to quarterback Blake Reed coming in for an injured Derek Shaeffer and throwing a touchdown on fourth-down with the game on the line in the first overtime period.

“I’m so happy for these kids because they work so hard,” head coach Harold Fairclough said. “I know everybody works hard. But these kids were kind of in shock when we came in last January and started grinding them right away. They bought in and I’m just happy for them that they stuck with it.”

Emmaus fell behind three different times during the course of the game, but each time had an answer. None was bigger than Reed’s throw in the first overtime.

Trailing 21-14 and backed up to their own 16-yard line after two negative plays and a penalty, the Hornets faced fourth-down. The run-heavy offense was forced to ride the right arm of Reed.

The junior quarterback delivered a strike over the middle into the back of the end zone that found the leaping arms of Drew Schwindenhammer to keep Emmaus alive and force the second overtime.

“Blake hadn’t played a varsity down all year [at quarterback],” said Fairclough. “He didn’t take a lot of reps in practice. He just stepped up and showed a lot of guts tonight. We had a timeout before that last play and I just told him, ‘Don’t hang on to that ball.’ I said ‘Just throw it and we’ll take what we get.’ He threw a strike and I’m so happy for him.”

Landis connected from 22 yards out to put the Green Hornets up by three, and then the Emmaus defense and Worth went after each other for four straight plays.

His first three carries tallied nine yards and positioned Parkland to either go for the win from a yard away, or kick the short field goal to tie and force a third overtime. Trojans head coach Tim Moncman decided to ride the legs of his bruising back, but to no avail.

“Jahan Worth is a beast, man,” Fairclough added. “He’s a great back. It took three or four guys to bring him down. I thought he was going to slip off of that and get in there. But we just rallied to him and made a great stop. It was one of the greatest stops in Emmaus football history.”

Running backs Lubens Myers (20 carries for 120 yards) and Sone Ntoh (6 carries for 42 yards) each scored a touchdown for Emmaus.

The Hornets clinched the top seed in the upcoming District 11 Class 6A tournament. They will host No. 8 seed Liberty (5-5 overall) in the quarterfinals Friday night.