With two older brothers who played soccer, Jake Groh grew up around soccer and has always loved the game. When he looked to continue his athletic days in college, finding a school with a good soccer program was always important, but the school also had to have a good engineering program that Groh could follow for his major.

He also didn’t want to be attending college too close to home, nor did he want to be a long distance from home.

Lots of schools showed interest but one-by-one, Groh crossed them off his list for one reason or another. Muhlenberg, which has a strong soccer program and offers engineering, was interested, but they were a bit too close for Groh. In the end, Elizabethtown checked all the boxes and will benefit by having the Emmaus grad on its roster this fall.

“I knew that I wanted to be in a good soccer program, but the school also had to have an engineering program that was really good, too,” explained Groh. “There aren’t a lot of schools that fit both, but Elizabethtown has both and is also the right distance for me so I can still see my family and friends here without much of a problem.”

Groh’s interest in engineering started in his sophomore year at Emmaus when he took a STEM class – Intro to Engineering – and developed a love for the subject. From that point, he envisioned majoring in engineering in college while playing soccer.

In his final two soccer seasons, Groh became an offensive force for the Hornets. He scored 19 of his 35 career goals in his senior season. He was also named to the All-Conference team in the EPC as both a junior and a senior.

“Jake genuinely loves the game of soccer, that’s clear,” said Emmaus coach John Cari. “He really came into his own in his junior and senior seasons and provided a lot of offense for us.”

It was Groh who scored the winning goal to beat Whitehall for the District 11 championship in his senior season, giving the 2020 senior class two district titles in their four seasons. Groh took a feed from fellow senior Andrew Gaines to score the championship goal and he credits that type of teamwork with making the teams so good throughout the past couple of seasons.

“All of the players in the senior class were very close,” said Groh. “We had grown up together and played a lot of soccer together and that really helped because we were so familiar with how each other played. It got to the point where we just knew where another player was going to be and it made the game much easier for us because of that familiarity.”

Groh also had a lot of soccer experience with his brothers Pat and Stephen. Pat graduated from Emmaus in 2012 and Stephen in 2017. Playing with his brothers was also what helped lead Groh to his love for soccer.

“I was very young when I got into soccer because of having older brothers. We were always playing soccer and we were pretty competitive with each other,” said Jake Groh. “Coming from a family of soccer players, it was just natural to love the game and want to play.”

For now, Elizabethtown is planning on having in person classes this fall and that’s just fine with Groh. The plan is to report to campus on August 17 for both classes and soccer. How much playing time that Groh gets will be determined by how well he plays in practice. If his past is any indication, Groh will be seeing time on the field as a freshman.