The East Penn Conference field hockey tournament this season was not typical for Emmaus. The Hornets beat Parkland 2-0 in the semifinals and then edged Easton 2-1 in the finals. The Lady Rovers had also played Emmaus tough in the regular season, falling 3-1.

The playoffs saw the Hornets trailing in a game for the first time this season, which is unusual for an Emmaus team even in the postseason. Multi-goal wins were limited to their first-round game against Liberty when the Hornets won 11-0.

The storyline changed in districts as the Lady Hornets beat Whitehall 12-0 in the tournament opener and then faced a rematch with Easton, which they won handily 9-1. That took them to finals and another rematch, this time against Parkland.

The script turned much more normal than in the conference playoffs as Emmaus downed the Lady Trojans 5-0 Saturday to win their 33rd consecutive District 11 championship.

“I don’t think that we sent any message at all,” said Emmaus head coach Sue Butz-Stavin about her team’s romp through districts. “I just think that we came out to play the game and we wanted to play for 60 minutes and capitalize on offensive corners, and we did today. The majority of our goals had something to do with the offensive attack on corners.”

While Parkland (16-7-0) did a respectable job of containing leading scorer Ava Zerfass, who has 51 goals on the season, the Trojans put themselves in a distinct advantage on corners – 15 for Emmaus compared to just three for Parkland - where Emmaus does much of its damage.

Shutting Zerfass down is always a good game plan, but teams also must stop several other players and Parkland was unable to do that. Rachel Herbine, who scored her 45th and 46th goals of the season in Saturday’s win, notched her first goal of the game in the opening quarter and then struck again in the third. The Hornets held a 1-0 edge after the first 15 minutes and then started to stretch their lead with goals from Autumn Kernechel and Lexi Kociban in the second quarter.

“It was off of a corner,” said Kociban of her goal that made it 3-0. “It was just a rebound off the goalie, and I just shot, and it went in. We’re focusing on starting out stronger, especially in the first two minutes of a quarter or after we score a goal or get a goal scored on us. That approach has been helping us a lot and it’s been a game changer for us.”

Senior Kyleigh Faust wrapped up the scoring when she took a pass from Herbine off a corner and put a shot past Parkland goalie Tess Garchinsky. Faust, a senior, said she thinks winning this gold was satisfying because it came at the expense of the rival Parkland Trojans.

“It’s more satisfying because they’re our rivals, it’s kind of nice to beat them,” said Faust, who will continue her field hockey career at Liberty University. “The feeling never gets old. It’s always a different feeling every year and it’s great to win a district championship each season that I have been here and winning this one as a senior is great.”

Success over Parkland is a long-standing tradition for Emmaus. The Lady Trojans tied Emmaus 1-1 in September of 2014 when the Trojans home field was grass. In the last 43 meetings between the teams, including Saturday’s game, Emmaus is 42-0-1 with their last loss coming on October 3, 2003. The Hornets picked up a measure of revenge a month later when they beat Parkland 1-0 in the district championship game. Since their loss to the Lady Trojans, four different Parkland coaches have gone winless in their career against Emmaus, with current coach Julie Bisci, 0-5, being the fifth through her two seasons at the helm.

Both Emmaus and Parkland will get home games in the first round of states, with Emmaus hosting Souderton at Memorial Field on Tuesday. Souderton is the fifth-place team from District 1 and is 20-2 on the season. Parkland will host Downingtown West (16-4-1), the third-place team from District 1, with that game being played Tuesday at Parkland High School.