The Emmaus High School boys soccer team did not have much success against rival Parkland in the teams’ first three meetings in 2021. The Trojans got the better of the Green Hornets in all three games, including in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference semifinals two weeks ago.

Heading into last week’s fourth meeting of the two teams, this time in the District 11 Class 4A title game, the Hornets were without their top scorer, Ryan Kiernan, due to injury. On paper, things didn’t look good for Emmaus.

But that’s why they play the game.

The Hornets (14-4-5 overall) scored three first-half goals and blitzed the Trojans (19-3-1) to the tune of a 3-1 victory last Thursday night at Whitehall High School to win the District 11 4A championship. It is the program’s third straight title.

“How about it? We’ll take the important one,” said Hornet head coach John Cari. “We were organized defensively. We had some time to get prepared. We had some time to give our legs a bit of a rest. Those were all important things. Very proud of our effort tonight. Finding out this morning that Ryan Kiernan wasn’t going to be able to play was big. We really stepped up finding through balls, I am super proud of our effort tonight.”

Emmaus scored all three of its goals in a 25-minute span in the first half that started 8:44 into the game when senior Jack Lawrence dribbled to the edge of the penalty area, cut in onto his right foot and curled a shot that clipped the underside of the crossbar and then bounced over the line. Classmate Juan Ramirez was credited with his first of the season when he played a ball off of a Parkland defender for an own-goal with 9:29 to play in the first half.

Fellow senior Bryan Flor capped the outburst when he re-directed a header from classmate Ryan Santos into the net for a 3-0 lead with 5:56 left in the opening frame.

“I think us putting one in on them early really showed that we were here to play, we weren’t here to lose again,” Lawrence said. “I saw an opening and I cut it back to the right. I just let it rip, off the crossbar, best shot of my life. It was the best feeling ever. And then to get two more goals from my teammates to add on was big for our confidence and to put them down.”

Parkland cut its deficit down when Zachary Reightler converted a penalty kick with 2:03 left in the first half and the teams went to the halftime break with Emmaus leading 3-1.

Emmaus goalie Ty Bleiler finished with six saves, four of which came in the second half to help preserve the victory.

The Green Hornets will now host District One’s third-place team on Tuesday in the first round of PIAA playoffs.