Emmaus had gone 26 straight games without allowing more than one goal in a game and they hadn’t been beaten in those 26 games. In fact, over the past five seasons, Emmaus has allowed more than one goal in a game just six times.

The first was in 2014 when they lost to Palmyra 4-0 in the state semifinals, and the following season, they beat Owen J. Roberts 3-2 during the regular season, marking the only time in the season that they allowed more than one goal in a game. In 2016, Whitehall scored twice against the Hornets in the regular season, but lost 6-2 and Downingtown West scored twice in the state quarterfinals, falling to the Hornets 3-2. Last season, Downingtown West extracted a little revenge with a 3-1 win in the state semifinals that snapped Emmaus’ 79-game unbeaten streak.

This season, Hershey erupted for five goals to beat the Lady Hornets 5-3 in the PIAA semifinal game at Exeter Township High School.

Hershey’s 5-3 win put the Trojans into the PIAA Finals, where they beat fellow District 3 rival Lower Dauphin 2-1 in overtime to win the school’s first-ever state championship.

Coming into the game with Hershey, coach Sue Butz-Stavin spoke glowingly about Hershey’s Maddie Zimmer and the junior midfielder showed why she was deserving of the accolades. Zimmer highlighted the game with three goals. Two of Zimmer’s goals came in the first half, with the second coming just before time expired, giving the Lady Trojans a 3-0 lead. Knowing that Emmaus wasn’t out of the game just yet, Hershey (19-5-1) came out with two more second half goals to take a 5-0 lead over the Hornets.

Hershey was right to keep up the pressure, because Emmaus showed why its program is so successful, when the Hornet offense regrouped to make the game interesting.

Senior Kacie Patton scored two goals, the first coming just over midway through the second half. Two minutes later, Patton added her second goal and fellow senior Kristen Zellner made it three goals in just over five-minutes to cut the Hershey lead to 5-3 with just over 10-minutes left in regulation. Patton added an assist on Zellner’s goal and Riley Baughman assisted on one of Patton’s goals. At that point, the Hershey defense was the one to regroup and kept the Emmaus offense contained for the rest of the game to lock up the win.

When it was all over, Emmaus had outshot Hershey 13-9, but was out-cornered 14-10. The first two goals that Hershey scored were off of penalty corners.

The loss brings the high school playing days of seniors Patton, Zellner, Kayla Kisthardt, Joy Muller, Claire Nielsen and Sarah Will to an end. The senior class ended their high school playing days with back-to-back state championships in 2015 and 2016 and a final record of 107-2 over their four seasons.

Earlier in the season, Butz-Stavin had talked about the success that the senior group had with the program and how they had contributed.

“They’re all phenomenal as leaders and they work hard both in practices and in games and really set that example for the younger players,” said Butz-Stavin, whose career coaching record at Emmaus stands at 945-81-35.