Emmaus field hockey captured its fifth straight East Penn Conference championship last week in a 3-1 win over Parkland at the Zephyr Sports Complex at Whitehall High School. Emmaus dominated much of the play, but Parkland goalkeeper Tess Garchinsky put on an impressive display to keep Emmaus from getting too far in front early on.

The Hornets collected eight penalty corners in the first 14 minutes of the game, but were able to score on just one of them, when Maddi Bruns took an assist from Abby Burnett and pushed it past Garchinsky for the early 1-0 lead. After that, Garchinsky became somewhat of a wall in front of the Parkland goal and picked up eight early saves.

Parkland didn’t get its first corner of the game until there was 14:15 left in the first half and the Trojans weren’t able to convert. Less than a minute later though, Erica Steele, known more for her defensive play than offense, put one into the cage to tie the game at 1-1.

While Emmaus dominated early on in penalty corners, the Hornets went over 17 minutes without being awarded a penalty corner as the Parkland defense seemed to settle in from the midway point of the first half and into the second half.

“They did a great job of clearing the ball out today,” said Emmaus head coach Sue Butz-Stavin of the Parkland defense. “We had plenty of opportunities, the ball was there in the scoring box area and we just didn’t finish. They did a great job of putting a lot of pressure on Annika [Herbine] and kind of took her out of her norm today.”

Parkland called a timeout late in the second half and Emmaus put the time to good use, making a switch in positioning.

Butz-Stavin moved Herbine to center-forward and put Burnett at center-mid, looking to open up some holes. The plan worked to perfection as both Herbine and Burnett scored within a minute of each other to give the Hornets a comfortable lead late in the game.

“It was getting really frustrating because their goalie was making really good saves and they played really well defensively, so it was frustrating,” said Herbine. “We wanted them to get frustrated too, so we could take advantage of that. I really believe in the whole team and I noticed that Parkland was getting frustrated too, so I knew that was when we were going to score a goal.”

When all was said and done, Emmaus had out-shot Parkland by a huge margin, with 23 shots on goal compared to just one for the Lady Trojans. Emmaus also held a commanding edge in penalty corners, winning that battle 17-6.

“It was just one of those games where you had to hang in there and fight through adversity, so I’m very proud of our girls for doing that today,” said Butz-Stavin.

Emmaus now moves on to district play, where it will look to win its 31st straight District 11 championship. For the players, the streak is on their minds, but doesn’t dominate their thinking as they defend last year’s district title.

“You don’t want to be that class [that lets the streak end], because we’re at 30 straight, so you don’t want to break that streak,” said Herbine. “It’s not just about the streak though, it’s really about a team effort and contributing.”

Emmaus had three players named to the EPC First-Team All-Star Team. Senior Kaitlyn Csensits, junior Annika Herbine and freshman Rachel Herbine were all named to the first-team. Liz Mazzella, a senior, was named to the EPC Second-Team.