The Emmaus ice hockey team is young and inexperienced on the varsity level, and it has shown so far during the young season.

The Green Hornets (3-5 overall) suffered their latest setback 9-0 at the hands of Southern Lehigh (4-2 overall) Monday night in the Lehigh Valley Scholastic Hockey League at the Lehigh Valley Ice Arena.

It has been a tough start to the season for Emmaus, but it may bode well for the future.

“We have a lot of young guys,” said head coach Jamie Rieder. “I think we only have four seniors, so the experience isn’t there with a majority of the team, and it shows. But they’re getting better each and every day, and we’re in all of our games. Tonight was indicative of that. For the first two periods we were right there, they just put it on us in the third.”

The Green Hornets trailed 2-0 after one period and 3-0 after two, and just needed a few of their shots to get by Spartan goalie Anthony Bufanio (25 saves), but the net minder held firm, and his offense added on to the cushion doubling their total in the final 16-minute stanza.

“I think our legs got tired on us,” said Rieder. “They really put a lot of pressure and a lot of shots on our net. It was a flurry of attacking that we just couldn’t combat. Credit them for the offense they created.”

Southern Lehigh’s leading scorer Brendan Gertz scored three goals in the first two periods, and another two in the third.

“Brendan is a great player,” said Rieder. “It showed tonight. He created a lot of opportunities for not only himself, but for his team to score. He gave us trouble all night.”

Emmaus’ Tashan Doodnauth made 27 saves on the night and did his best to keep his team in it, but a third-period flurry of shots was just too much for him.

Southern Lehigh outshot Emmaus 15-8 in the third period, and a high percentage of their shots turned to goals.

Gertz (2), Tom Matsumara, Nick Kline, Sawyer Sargent and Robert Mateff all scored for the Spartans during the third.

The Green Hornets must do what they have been doing so far early on, learn each and every game, and keep working hard.

“We’ll learn from this,” said Rieder. “It didn’t turn out the way we wanted to, but we’ll get back out there at practice this week and work on getting better. We have another tough game with Freedom (3-2-2 overall) on Monday, so we’ll have to be ready.”