The first time that Emmaus and Parkland met in girls soccer this season, the Hornets came out strong and held a 1-0 lead going to the half. In the second half, Parkland found two unanswered goals to get away with a 2-1 win.

This time around, Emmaus again came out firing, but both teams came up empty in the first half Monday night. And the second. And the first overtime. And the second overtime. The game ended in a scoreless tie, giving Parkland (14-0-1 overall, 12-0-1 EPC) the first blemish on their record this season.

“You hate for any game to end in a tie,” said coach Sarah Oswald. “Especially in this rivalry where the game is hard fought all the way, you’d like to have someone come away with a win, but a tie against that team isn’t a bad result, considering nobody has gotten to them this season.”

In the early part of the game, Emmaus had two shots on goal in the first five minutes and added another third in the next five minutes. On two of those shots, third-string goalkeeper Katey Kunz came up with big saves to stop the shots and preserve the scoreless tie.

Emmaus handled much of the play and limited the Trojans to just two shots on goal in the first half. The biggest save of the first half came when Ava Schaller had a breakaway with 19:47 left in the half. Emmaus goalkeeper Alexa Ryan made a diving stop on the ball to keep Parkland off the scoreboard.

Less than a minute later, Emmaus pressured and Parkland came up with a big defensive stop and Kunz stopped the rebound, which was fired back on goal by Emmaus.

“Both goalies really put on a great show tonight,” said Oswald. “They both faced a lot of pressure and both were up to the task. We can’t ask any more of Alexa than she has done for us. She’s in her third year starting for us and she’s in her senior season and she’s playing really well every game out.”

Midway through the second half, Schaller again had an opportunity to put her team on the board, but was stopped by Ryan. The ball rebounded back out to Mariana Aubele-Gonzalez who fired a shot toward the top part of the net, but saw it bounce off the crossbar and go out of bounds.

From there, Emmaus went back on the attack and was awarded a direct kick with 19:40 left in regulation. Grace Eisenhard took the shot and put it over the crossbar, landing harmlessly out of bounds. Later, Emmaus was awarded back-to-back corners, but couldn’t cash in on either opportunity.

“We put the ball in some dangerous spots on corners tonight, but couldn’t get it into the net,” said Oswald. “It was just one of those nights where we came close and both teams had some opportunities, but couldn’t capitalize.”

Another Parkland opportunity came with 10:30 left to play when they were awarded a direct kick, but Ryan made a stop on the ball. Next up was Emmaus when they fired a laser toward Kunz, who lacks height, but was able to get good lift and tipped the ball over the top of the goal.

Momentum swung back-and-forth through both overtime periods, ending with the Lady Hornets having a flurry of opportunities late in the second overtime. They were awarded a direct kick with 21 seconds left to play, but Kunz made the stop and as the ball was played back toward midfield, the horn blew ending the heavyweight bout between two of the better soccer teams in District 11.

“It’s tough to not come out of here with a win, but we’re also not coming out with a loss, so it’s not as bad as it could have been,” said Oswald. “You have to just enjoy the fact that both teams played really well and had opportunities that they didn’t cash in on and a lot of that was because of the defense of the other team. Next time we have to face them, if it goes like this, at least we’ll have a winner through penalty kicks.”

The two teams are likely to meet again in conference and possibly district play as well. Overtime games are decided by penalty kicks in postseason games.