Last Friday night’s Emmaus 20-19 victory over Nazareth in the District 11 Class 6A quarterfinal playoffs proved, if nothing else, what these Hornets are capable of when they don’t beat themselves.

Not to take anything away from the fourth-seeded Blue Eagles, but fifth-seeded Emmaus had bumbled its way through the first half, committing four turnovers that helped give Nazareth a 12-0 halftime lead at Andrew S. Leh Stadium.

With the 24 minutes to play the Hornets were looking into the abyss. After a 7-1 start, they had lost their last two regular season games to Easton and Parkland, as a result dropping to the fifth-seed in the district playoffs. Now after two periods against Nazareth, they appeared ready to enter a long, offseason sleep.

“I said to them ‘we are beating ourselves,’” Emmaus coach Harold Fairclough told his team at halftime.

But the Hornets proved they were too good for that. During an explosive third quarter, the Hornet offense got on track, scoring 20 points and proving the old adage “better late than never.” The deep ball was the big reason why. On their second play from scrimmage, Fairclough called a gadget play where receiver Tyson Karrat hit receiver Jake Fotta with a nice pass for a 45-yard pickup. From there it took four plays for quarterback Josiah Williams to complete a pass to a wide-open David Iobst for a 3-yard touchdown pass.

Williams was 5-for-13 for 153 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Nazareth responded with a touchdown on the second play of their next drive when Tyler Rohn won a 69-yard footrace to the end zone for a 19-7 lead.

On their next possession Emmaus’ offense again took flight. Sophomore quarterback Williams fired an 83-yard touchdown pass to Dylan Darville to pull the Hornets to 19-14.

Emmaus took the lead for good after its defense stuffed the Blue Eagles on a three-and-out possession and a shanked punt gave the Hornets possession at the Nazareth 18. Two plays later, Jared Groller carried the mail for a 3-yard touchdown run. The Hornets’ attempt at a two-point conversion was unsuccessful, and they led 20-19.

“Our guys made some big plays in the second half,” Fairclough said.

The Hornets then turned to the defense to close out the playoff victory with a dominating fourth quarter. Emmaus not only shutout the Blue Eagles, they shut down their offense almost entirely, forcing four, three-and-out possessions. Nazareth hung tough and finally put together a nice drive on their final possession. However, Emmaus’ Trevor Gitski recovered a Rohn fumble, advancing the Hornets to the semifinals against Parkland.

Groller and Jaden Delgado each registered five tackles for Emmaus, with Aidan Garrett adding four. Overall, the Hornet defense throttled the Nazareth passing attack, holding the Blue Eagles to 73 yards through the air.