Playing for a District 11 field hockey championship has become an annual ritual for Emmaus and coach Sue Butz-Stavin, whose teams have won 27 straight district championships. Emmaus gets a shot at number 28 Wednesday night at Whitehall High School, but don’t ask Butz-Stavin about stretching out the streak.

“This team’s going for its first championship,” said Butz-Stavin when asked about the quest for 28.

Whether it’s the 28th or this team’s first, Emmaus reached the District 11 championship with a 6-2 win over Whitehall, not only putting the Hornets into the district final, but guaranteeing them a chance to defend their state championship.

Emmaus went up just about halfway through the first period against a feisty Whitehall team, when Joy Muller banged the back of the goal cage for a 1-0 lead. Five minutes later, Whitehall showed that it wasn’t going to go quietly, as Emily Wells tied the game 1-1. When the dust settled on the first half, Emmaus was up 3-1 with Kira Koehler and Leah Zellner adding goals.

“We only played on this field [at Parkland High School] one time this season, so it felt a little different coming in,” said Zellner. “We knew they were going to play really aggressive, because both teams knew this could be their last game of the season. We have really good connecting passes up and down our lines, so I think that’s a big part of everything.”

Koehler’s goal came just 42 seconds after Wells tied the game.

“We stress that there are wars to win out there on the field,” said Butz-Stavin. “The first five minutes, the last five minutes, and you want to answer a score. They might be celebrating and relaxing after a goal.”

Koehler added her second goal of the night with 24 minutes left in the game, putting Emmaus up 4-1. Just about the time everyone realized that Emmaus’ all-time leading scorer, Meredith Sholder, hadn’t scored in the game, the senior put her team up 5-1 with her 51st goal of the season. Zellner struck again late in the game to make it 6-1 before Whitehall got its second goal with just 1:30 left to play. That second tally marked the first time that Emmaus had allowed more than one goal in a game.

The win demonstrated that Emmaus is a team deeper than just Sholder. Teams that are able to slow down the North Carolina recruit tend to find out that there is more firepower to Emmaus than just one player.

“We’re all really capable of passing the ball and scoring and we rely on each other and trust each other enough to be able to do that,” said Zellner.

To win their 28th straight, or first, depending on how you want to look at it, district title, Emmaus will have to down their fiercest competitor Stroudsburg in Wednesday night’s contest.

The Hornets beat the Mounties 5-0 during the regular season and then came from behind to beat them in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference finals 3-1. Last season, Emmaus beat Stroudsburg 2-1 in the district finals.

“We’ll have to work on our corner defense,” said Butz-Stavin. “Stroudsburg will be quick to the ball Wednesday night, a lot like Whitehall was tonight. For any checkmate they will have, we’ll have to go double checkmate.”