Emmaus and Whitehall soccer teams are nothing if not consistent. The two teams met twice during the regular season with both games ending in a 1-0 win for Emmaus.

When the two teams met in the quarterfinals of the District 11 playoffs on Saturday, guess what the final score was? If you guessed 1-0 in favor of the Hornets, you’re a winner.

As in the first two games of the season, both teams put strong defenses on display and both had a couple of near misses when it came to their offense.

The Emmaus offense controlled much of the play and had a tough time getting anything past Whitehall goalkeeper Elijah Siler, who was credited with eight saves in the game.

Just past the midway point of the first half, Emmaus looked to take a lead when Alexzander Toto put a shot toward the top of the goal, but Siler was able to get a hand on the ball and deflect it over the crossbar.

Ten minutes later, Hudson Peck played a ball toward the front corner of the net and Patrick Walsh went up over a Whitehall defender and headed the ball past Siler for the 1-0 lead.

“Hudson put the ball down quickly and we made eye contact and I made a run and he played a phenomenal pass to me and I headed it in on the run,” said Walsh of the play. “Without Hudson having playing that ball so well I wouldn’t have scored on it, so that was a great play from him.”

With time running down in the first half, Emmaus (11-1 overall) looked for a second goal on a shot from Ryan Kiernan that was initially caught by Siler then dropped.

Unfortunately for the Hornets, they didn’t have a player close enough to take advantage of the error and the game went to the break with the Hornets up 1-0.

In the second half, Emmaus switched a few things around and found more openings on offense. Less than two minutes into the half, Peck looked to get a goal of his own when he put a shot on goal but Siler covered up the shot. Minutes later, Walsh looked to get his second with a shot from the left side of the net that Siler stopped. The ball rolled around the mouth of the net until Whitehall cleared the ball.

By late in the second half, the Zephyrs (6-7) started to put more pressure on Emmaus goalie Ty Bleiler. With 9:14 left to play, Jacob Gier put a shot to Bleiler’s left, but the junior goalie made an athletic dive to shut down the scoring opportunity.

The Zephyrs didn’t give an inch down the stretch and with time running out, got a shot off from the left side of the goal, but the ball went over the crossbar and time ran out before either team could get any other opportunities.

When all was said and done, Emmaus had nine shots on goal to just two for Whitehall. Emmaus edged Whitehall in corners 5-3 in the game. The Hornets would have liked more offense, but coach John Cari is glad to be moving on.

“We’re moving on and that’s the key,” said Cari. “I thought we did a better job of adjusting in the second half to try to create some offense and we did a good job, but their goalkeeper made a couple of big saves. Without him making the big saves it could have easily been a two- or three-nothing game.”

The Hornets move to within a game of the finals as they defend their District 11 title from last season. Freedom will come to Memorial Field Wednesday for the semifinal game against the Hornets.

On Saturday, while Emmaus was playing Whitehall, Freedom downed Pleasant Valley 4-1 in the other quarterfinal matchup. While Emmaus and Whitehall had played twice during the regular season, the Hornets and Patriots haven’t played this season. Their last meeting was in last year’s quarterfinal round of districts when Emmaus beat Freedom 2-0.

“I’m going to have to find someone who has some footage to kind of figure out a little bit of what Freedom is doing,” admitted Cari about not having played the Patriots this season. “They’re another program like Whitehall that’s really taking a positive step. They were 2018 district champs and they’re bouncing right back and they had a really good regular season.”