One of the hallmarks of the Emmaus field hockey program is that the team plays nonconference games against strong opponents year in and year out.

This season, Emmaus teamed up with Wyomissing Area to play home-and-home games on the schedule.

The pairing worked well since both teams are competitive and while Emmaus plays on artificial turf, Wyomissing’s field is grass. The different surfaces provided both coaches with the opportunity to see their teams play against strong competition on different types of fields.

In the first meeting, which was at Wyomissing, the Warriors and Hornets played an overtime game that ended with Emmaus winning in a 2-1 game.

This time around, Emmaus was able to dominate a little more and take a 4-0 win on its home turf. Looking at both games, Hornet head coach Sue Butz-Stavin believes the type of turf played a role in the outcomes of the games.

“I think we had to make some adjustments because they are a big ball hitting team because they play on grass up there and that’s an adjustment for us because we’re always on turf,” said Butz-Stavin. “Up there, we pretty much had the upper hand and then they got a counter attack on us and our defense was all out of position and they scored on us. The good thing is that we were able to come from behind.”

Emmaus was pressuring early and coming up on the halfway mark of the first period, Rachel Herbine beat goalkeeper Carly Saranchuk for the first goal of the game, putting the Hornets up 1-0.

The Lady Hornets stretched it to 2-0 early in the second period when Annika Herbine fired a shot toward the right corner of the goal and Kyleigh Faust deflected the shot past Saranchuk for the goal, her fifth of the season. Four minutes later, Jenna Villeneuve picked up her third goal of the season as Emmaus grabbed a commanding 3-0 lead.

Annika Herbine, the team’s leader in goals, wasn’t going to be shut out on the day as she picked up her 19th goal – to go with 16 assists – with just 35 seconds left in the third period as the Hornets lead became a 4-0 advantage.

“I thought we rushed some shots today and shot ourselves in the foot, but other than that we played pretty well,” said Butz-Stavin. “I think a couple of our kids got a little tired but we just have to keep plugging away.”

The goal that Emmaus allowed in its first meeting with the Lady Warriors is the only goal it has given up all season.

The final two regular season games come against rival Parkland and will be interesting.

The Lady Trojans are 6-0 on the season, but their wins are all against weaker East Penn Conference teams. Parkland hasn’t been challenged by stronger competition as Emmaus has been with Wyomissing.

With the regular season wrapping up this week, Emmaus can look forward to the District 11 tournament where it has dominated by winning gold in each of the last 31 seasons. Emmaus currently stands as the top seed in the 3A classification.

Butz-Stavin is happy with how her team has played this season and how the younger players have developed, especially considering the obstacles that the coronavirus placed on practice and preparing for the season.

“I think that with what we’ve been through – what everyone has been through – we’ve been building. It’s more of a mental struggle I think throughout this season and it’s been beneficial,” said Butz-Stavin. “I think we are good physically and we trained hard when we were able to be together or independently when we couldn’t, so I feel comfortable with that. I think our stick skills are there, it’s just the unity on the field, so we just have to keep going.”