For Emmaus junior lacrosse player Grace Hall, Saturday’s game against Southern Lehigh hit home in a special way.

Memorial Field at Emmaus High School was the site of the Third Annual PanCan event in which proceeds and donations benefited HEADstrong Foundation and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. And for Hall, she has a personal attachment during each year’s event.

“My friend Tori lost her mom to pancreatic cancer and I am close with her family,” Hall said. “It was such an honor to come out here and be able to play for Head Strong and pancreatic cancer because so many families in Emmaus and Southern Lehigh have been affected by it.”

Plenty of individuals in both communities are affected by pancreatic cancer or know someone who has suffered from it. So, last Saturday afternoon, the four lacrosse games between Emmaus and Southern Lehigh took a backseat for the good cause.

Unlike prior years in which the Hornet girls and boys games were held at separate locations and different times, this year both programs teamed up for an all-day event at Emmaus’ home field. The junior varsity girls and boys teams opened the events with the first two games in the morning, followed by the varsity girls and boys to close out the afternoon.

“It’s really a great event; we do it every year and it was such an honor to play out here with everybody and my teammates,” Hall said.

“Last year we were both away at Southern Lehigh. The boys and girls played different days. It wasn’t this brought together. And this was like the first year that it was this huge event.”

Various fundraisers were held during the day and leading up to the event. Raffle tickets were sold for various prizes and T-shirts were sold on Saturday as well. All proceeds went to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and HEADstrong Foundation.

Emmaus, which sponsored the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, sported purple and white t-shirts supporting the cause. Southern Lehigh was dressed in lime green sponsoring HEADstrong.

“It’s been an amazing experience for the girls,” Emmaus head coach Roxann Betz said. “They had a cause to play for today, and I think that fueled them to play as good as they did.”