The Emmaus boys soccer team couldn’t have asked for a better start to its 2019 season. The Green Hornets won their first 13 games to start the campaign, 11 of which were East Penn Conference games. But they finally slipped up, falling on the road at Northampton last Friday.

Unfortunately for Emmaus, it wasn’t able to start a new win streak in its next game as the challenge of winning on the road showed itself once again.

The Green Hornets (13-2 overall, 11-2 EPC) dropped their second consecutive game, losing 2-0 Monday night at Parkland High School in Eastern Pennsylvania Conference action.

“We just need to put more pressure on them and not sit back and wait,” said Hornet head coach John Cari. “It’s always hard going into your rival’s house, and always hard playing against a good team like them. We played well outside of a couple plays they had that led to their goals. We know you’re always going to face some adversity during a season, this is ours.”

The Trojans (10-4, 10-3) got some revenge on the Hornets, who won the previous game 2-1 in overtime back on September 4. The two teams are one-two in the EPC Skyline Division with Emmaus on top.

“These games are always a battle, always close,” said Cari. “It’s not surprising we’ve split the two games we’ve seen them and we will probably see them again.”

Parkland’s Alex Wilsterman did all of the damage for the Trojans. The senior scored twice, both goals came on set pieces. One was a direct kick and the other came on a penalty kick.

Giving up any goal is tough to take, but Cari found solace in the defensive effort overall.

“We can take away that they didn’t score in the flow of play,” Cari said. “It was a set piece and a penalty kick. It’s unfortunate because I thought our defense and midfield played well against them in the run of play.”

Emmaus will look to stop the current skid when it hosts Nazareth tonight at 6:30 p.m. It will remain to finish out the week against Whitehall on Saturday afternoon in the final full week of EPC play.