For the 12th time in school history, the Emmaus High School field hockey team captured gold medals in the PIAA tournament. Emmaus downed Palmyra 5-1 Saturday at Whitehall High School, successfully defending its state championship from last season. It’s the fourth time the Hornets have won back-to-back state titles.

Just 2:40 into the game, Emmaus got on the board when Meredith Sholder fired a shot on goal and Emily Ingalls was in the perfect spot to play the shot and tip it past Palmyra goalkeeper Cheyenne Sprecher. The early goal set the tone for Emmaus and Sholder, who showed some extra emotion on the goal as a senior playing in her final high school game before heading off to the University of North Carolina. Sholder pumped her fist and jumped into the air when the ball clanged off the back of the cage.

“I didn’t really know what to expect this game,” said Sholder. “Because we really didn’t see Palmyra play at all this year. We knew they beat Penn Manor in district championships, so we knew they were a good team. We didn’t want to come out overconfident, so I didn’t expect anything and scoring that early in the game, I was pleasantly surprised. I wasn’t super-surprised, because I knew we could do it, but to be able to finish like that, with Emily giving an amazing tip, it was a moment to remember.”

Emmaus ends the season at 28-0 and ranked as the top high field hockey program in the country. The Hornets finished last season 27-0, giving them a 55-game win streak.

Sophomore Kacie Patton had two breakaways that resulted in goals in the state title game. On the first, she passed off to Leah Zellner, who scored to make it a 2-0 game. Patton also fed senior Maddie Dill with just 50 seconds left to play. Dill, a senior who hadn’t scored a goal this season, finished off the play with a perfect shot to stretch the Emmaus lead to 5-1.

“It was amazing, it’s crazy and I love it,” said Dill with the gold medal hanging around her neck. “It was amazing winning junior year, and senior year, it’s just that much better. I’m so happy.”

“She’s a senior and I wanted to make sure she was in the game at the end, along with [Rachel] Allmandinger and [Morgan] Teitz,” said coach Sue Butz-Stavin. “We have seven seniors, so I wanted to make sure that they were all on the field at the end today.”

Sholder also scored a goal, giving her 58 goals on the season and 215 career goals, the second most ever by a high school player for their career. After Palmyra came back with a goal early in the second-half, Kayla Kisthardt scored her 11th goal of the season, a key goal that gave Emmaus a cushion at 4-1 with 11:00 left to play.

Emmaus had beaten Penn Manor 1-0 last Tuesday to advance to the championship game against Palmyra. In each of the last two seasons, Emmaus has had to get past Penn Manor in the semifinals and Palmyra in the finals to win the titles. In both games, the Hornets scored early goals, putting pressure on their opponents to attempt a comeback against a dominating Lady Hornets defense.

“You would always like to score a goal in the first five minutes of play to get the kids to settle in,” said Butz-Stavin. “It’s a great way to end our season. I was hoping that the kids weren’t too high over beating Penn Manor the other night. I was happy with how we came in here, but we didn’t quite hustle to the ball like we did the other night, but that was a game where everything just clicked.”

Butz-Stavin dedicated the game to her friend and longtime District 11 Field Hockey Chairwoman Betsy Wilson, who passed away last month, and to former player Ellen Heinly-Sonoski, 40, who was killed in a house fire near Shamokin on October 15. Sosnoski is a 1993 graduate of EHS who played at Juniata College and was a coach at Southern Columbia Area High School.