The Emmaus ice hockey team showed its youth last Monday night. Northampton poured in five goals in a flurry of shots on net, and put the Green Hornets in an early 5-0 hole after one period.

Emmaus tacked on three goals in the final two periods, but just could not dig out of the early deficit, and fell to the Kids 9-3 at Lehigh Valley Ice Arena. It was the ninth straight loss for the young Green Hornets, dating back to November 7.

With only one game left to play against Phillipsburg next Monday night, the future still looks bright for the program.

“We have a young team, and it has shown a lot this year,” said head coach Jamie Rieder. “We have a sophomore and a freshman as goalies, and there are only four seniors. So there have been some growing pains this year, but these guys are getting a lot of valuable experience that will benefit for next year.”

Those four seniors: Noah Brown, Braxton Grom, Matthew Hidalgo and Matthew Sheaffer were honored before the game Monday night as Emmaus (3-10) held its senior night. The four seniors didn’t get the result they would have hoped on their night, but there is still one more game to play to go out on top.

Despite the slow start, the Hornets clawed back into the contest behind two of their seniors. Brown opened up the scoring in the second period on a wrap-around behind the net. Then about three minutes later, Sheafer slipped a pass by three defenders that found the open stick of Joseph Eckstein, who smoothly placed his shot into the back of the net.

Despite the two goals by Emmaus, Northampton added three, and held a six-goal lead at 8-2 heading into the final frame.

“We got off to a terrible start,” said Rieder. “After that first period, the kids didn’t keep their heads down. They started playing good hockey and got a couple of goals back. But then they answered with a few goals and just took momentum right back. It was just hard to climb out of the early hole we put ourselves in.”

Sheaffer tallied his team-leading 16th goal six minutes into the third period. His assist on the Eckstein goal was also the 12th assist on the season for Sheaffer, which also is a team-high.

The Kids outshot the Green Hornets 46-18. Northampton (7-4-1) created more chances, and added a late goal with 3:03 remaining.

But sophomore goalie Toshan Doodnauth (13 saves), who started in net during the first period, and freshman Austin Moudy (24 saves), who played the final two periods, both came up with big saves to at least keep their team within striking distance.

“They’re young and they make some mistakes, but they learn and get better every game,” Rieder said. “They’re going against some good players and good competition from these other teams, so that makes it tough. They haven’t seen this level of play really that much yet. It’s fun watching these guys develop and I’m excited for what they can do for us.”