Parkland head football coach Tim Moncman never wavered in his decision to go for it on fourth down and one from the one-yard line. He had done it before with the game on the line back when he was the head man at Liberty in an important game, and he had the personnel to do it again.

But the Emmaus defensive front stood firm and stuffed the Trojans run for a 24-21 double-overtime victory last Friday night at East Penn School District Stadium that clinched the outright Eastern Pennsylvania Conference title for Hornets (9-1). It was the first victory over Parkland (7-3) since the 2011 season.

Instead of going for the tie to take it to a third overtime period, the Trojans elected to hand it off to powerful junior running back Jahan Worth instead of kicking the field goal.

“I did it when we were in the district playoffs against Hazleton a few years ago when I was coaching at Liberty,” Moncman said. “The ball is on the 1-yard line. You run behind your best and give it to your best. But tonight we couldn’t get it in.”

Moncman called it a great high school football game and said he hoped both teams will take care of business in the upcoming District 11 Class 6A tournament and meet again for district gold.

Emmaus is the top seed and the Trojans are in as the No. 3 team, hosting No. 6 Nazareth (5-5) Friday night at Parkland School District stadium.

Parkland jumped ahead three different times over the course of the game, but each time the Hornets had an answer. The Trojans led 7-0, 14-7 and 21-14, with Emmaus scoring tying touchdowns after each Parkland score.

The opening touchdown came as a surprise. Early in the second quarter with both offenses sputtering, the Trojans lined up to attempt a 37-yard field goal on fourth down. Holder Ethan Imler took the snap, stood up and lobbed a pass over the defense to a wide open Frank Guida for the score.

Emmaus tailback Sone Ntoh answered on the next possession with a 25-yard run. But Parkland took momentum into halftime thanks to a 5-yard touchdown catch by Nate Weider from Michael Ruisch.

The only points recorded in the second half came on a 46-yard burst by Emmaus running back Lubens Myers that tied the score at 14-14 with 6:29 left in the third quarter.

The teams traded punts the rest of the way, until trading touchdowns in overtime number one.

Worth found pay-dirt from 10 yards away on the first play of their possession in overtime.

Trailing 21-14 and backed up to the 16-yard line after two negative plays and a penalty, the Green Hornets faced fourth down. The run-heavy offense was forced to ride the right arm of backup quarterback Blake Reed, who came on in the third quarter for injured starter Derek Shaeffer.

The junior 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.

“The kid (Reed) made a great play; that’s what high school football is all about,” said Moncman. “They executed well on offense, but I thought our defense was great. They just came to play tonight.”

Carson Landis then 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 totaled nine yards and positioned Parkland to either go for the win from a yard away, or kick the short field goal to tie it back up. Moncman elected to ride the legs of his bruising back.

“Jahan Worth is a beast,” Emmaus head coach Harold Fairclough said. “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.”

Parkland will now focus on the district tournament, a title which they have won the last four years.

“Everyone wanted this gold tonight, but it’ll be great to get that other one,” Moncman said.