Emmaus and Parkland met for the fourth time this season in the District 11 girls soccer semifinal at J. Birney Crum Stadium. The game ended as the other three games had, with Parkland downing Emmaus 3-0 to advance to the district championship.

Rachel Laird scored twice for Parkland and Brooke Schutter added a final insurance goal for the Lady Trojans as Parkland outshot Emmaus 9-3.

Emmaus lost the previous three meetings by scores of 3-1, 4-0 and 2-0, but had gotten praise from Parkland coach Al Haddad, whose team went on to win the District 11 Championship. Haddad’s undefeated team had some of its toughest challenges against Emmaus.

“I said early in the season that I thought Emmaus was going to surprise some people and they did,” said Haddad. “They gave us tough games every time that we played them, and tonight was no different.”

The loss capped a season that saw Emmaus go 15-8, a big improvement over their 8-10-2 performance in 2015. Coach Sarah Oswald, who finishes her second season as the team’s coach, was proud of her team’s performance not just in the final game against Parkland, but all season long.

“These girls worked so hard this year and put so much into this, I hate to see it end this way for them,” said Oswald. “They can hold their heads high because they played hard and they’re a tough team.”

Emmaus is now going to be challenged to replace seven seniors – Julia Dunn, Julio Fedorich, Colleen Hanvey, Mackenzie McCann, Reilly McGinnis, Madison Nader and Brenna Skekel – but thanks to young players who have stepped up this season, there are likely to be answers to some of the team’s question marks for next season already in place.

“It’s never easy to say good-bye to these girls, but as a high school coach, you know that’s going to happen every year,” said Oswald. “Our senior girls are great people on and off the field and that’s what’s so impressive about them. On the field, you just have to look to players to fill those holes, but we have young players who can step in and help. We always talk about having to step up and we just have to find players to do that.”

The young players helped the team in the league playoffs when both Oswald and McGinnis weren’t able to be at Memorial Field for the postseason opener. The team came together in that game and Emmaus moved on to the conference championship.

Emmaus had 11 juniors on their roster this season, many of whom played a good number of minutes. That junior class should be able to fill leadership roles for the team, while younger players, who took steps forward this season, will continue to develop and provide solid players for Oswald to plug into the lineup next season.