A three-game skid brought on by a rash of injuries during the regular season dropped Emmaus out of a sure number-one seed in the East Penn Conference playoffs and into the two-seed. The positioning didn’t matter to the Hornets, who cut their way through the conference bracket for a showdown against number-one Liberty.

The result was a 1-0 Emmaus win on a goal by senior A.J. Febbraro that sealed this year’s league title.

The two teams hadn’t met during the regular season, adding some intrigue to the matchup for the conference championship. The two teams spent the first few minutes of the game just settling in and figuring out what the other team was trying to do.

Emmaus had the first opportunity when a free-kick went off the goal post and bounced away from the goal. A few minutes later, a corner kick was headed down by Eric Johnson and Andrew Gaines had a shot, but put it wide of the goal. Immediately after that, another direct kick went off the crossbar.

Coming out of the scoreless tie at the half, Emmaus again went right back to work. Johnson put a perfectly executed bicycle-kick on goal, but senior goalkeeper Blake Koski wasn’t surprised by the move and tipped the ball away from the mouth of the goal.

Just 30 seconds later, Emmaus finally connected when Febbraro took a feed from Jake Groh and was able to work it past Koski for the 1-0 edge with 34:24 left to play in regulation. The goal was especially satisfying for Febbraro since it came in a season where he missed considerable time with a wrist injury and came against an offseason teammate.

“He did a great job,” coach John Cari said of Febbraro’s shot. “It’s funny, because A.J. has a lot of experience with Blake. They played together on club and practiced against each other, so it’s good for him to have gotten that goal.

“He sat for a long while and worked his way back and then finds one when we need it, that’s just great.”

Febbraro was looking to make up for some lost time and saw the situation unfold perfectly in front of him. When the feed came from Groh, he knew exactly where he wanted to put the shot.

“I knew Jake was going to flick it back and I was in the right spot at the right time,” said Febbraro. “I just had to focus on the shot and get it back on the net.”

Emmaus continued to put pressure on Koski, who was up to the task and turned away shot after shot. Late in the second half, Liberty’s Max Molloy leveled Gaines from behind and Emmaus was awarded a penalty kick because of the play. Groh took the shot, but Koski again made the stop, preventing Emmaus from gaining any insurance.

Liberty had a free kick with just over one minute to play and brought Koski out of the goal to give an extra attacker. Koski raced around the edge of the goal and was in position, but the ball never got to him as Chris Buck made a save to prevent the Hurricanes from tying the game.

“I’m proud of these guys,” said Cari, whose team hadn’t won a conference championship since 2014. “They did a great job tonight. We’re getting everyone healthy and playing really hard. Now we’ve got a little time to rest and then get ready for next week. I’m going to enjoy this tonight and then we’ll get back to it next week.”

Emmaus will open district play Thursday in the quarterfinals against the winner of the Freedom-East Stroudsburg South game. The Hornets are the top seed in the District 11 Class 4A playoffs.

Febbraro is back and ready to do further damage as the team fights for a district title and a trip to states. Right now, he and the rest of the team have their confidence at a season-high and they’re prepared for a deep run and more gold medals around their necks.

“Those three games [the regular season losses] didn’t count,” Febbraro stressed. “These games are the ones that count now that we’re at EPCs and districts. We’re just going to keep going. I think we can win districts and states and take home three gold medals this season.”