The last time that Emmaus played Central Catholic, the Lady Hornets were in the midst of playing six games in seven days, all against EPC teams with winning records.

Emmaus started and ended that stretch with wins but lost three games in a row in the middle, starting with a 2-1 loss to the Vikettes.

This time around, Emmaus (10-5, 10-3) was well rested and downed Central Catholic 1-0 Monday to avenge the loss on Sept. 28.

“We definitely felt it within our team that there was a lull, and you could tell there was some frustration and we talked about what kind of team are we going to be in adversity,” said Emmaus head coach Sarah Oswald. “That was the first point in our season where we had to handle situations that we hadn’t been in before and we came back the next week and got some wins and were able to recover a little from those games.”

The lone goal of the game came in the first half when Kam McWhinney put a shot on goal that got away from goalkeeper Armani Brickhouse. Sophia Candy saw an opportunity and made the most of it.

“I really think it was just right place, right time,” said Candy, a senior. “Kam McWhinney had a really amazing ball served in and I had a bending run and the keeper fumbled it. I was just there at the right time and hit it.

“I think the whole team really needed this one to get our confidence and be excited to lead into things like EPCs and districts. I think that overall, there is just a great energy with our team right now.”

While that three-game losing streak hurt, the Hornets were to keep their focus and they bounced back to finish the difficult four-game stretch with a 2-1 win at Northampton (8-8, 6-7) and then blanked Whitehall (4-10, 3-9) last Wednesday to officially get things turned around.

Monday night’s win over Central Catholic (11-3-2, 10-3-2) gives Emmaus a three-game winning streak with one final game against Parkland (11-2-1, 10-1-1) remaining on the schedule.

The defensive unit has played well and goalkeeper Molly Lineberger picked up her eighth shutout of the season in the win over the Vikettes.

At times, the back line keeps Lineberger lonely in front of the net, not allowing opponents to have many scoring opportunities, but she produced some key saves against Central Catholic as she has done all season when needed.

“I don’t mind those games when I don’t have much to do,” said Lineberger with a smile. “I love our back line and they’re there for me and I can be there for them when they need it. We’ve got a really good system going.”

Lineberger is looking forward to facing Parkland and believes that the team is going to be strong going into the postseason, which kicks off on Saturday.

“We were feeling it last week and that’s why it was a little rough,” said the senior goalie. “This bounce back is going to help us a lot. We’re just going to come back stronger, and this is a win against a really good team.”

While the team may have been taxed physically by the schedule, Oswald believes that they handled the adversity well and have come through the most difficult stretch of their schedule in decent shape. The win over Central Catholic also gives the team momentum.

“This win is important for standings and it’s important going into the Parkland game, which was the game we had after losing to Central the first time,” said Oswald. “Most importantly, I think it gives our team some confidence just to know that we can compete with the teams that are above us in our division and the teams that are going to be higher seeds than us in EPCs.”