Last week the Emmaus boys lacrosse team faced a team in just its seventh season that was looking for its first ever win against one of the Lehigh Valley’s elite programs.

In what was a back-and-forth game, Northwestern Lehigh scored with 35 second left in the first overtime to earn a milestone win for the young program.

Freshman Logan Uricchio leapt into the air and put a shot into the back of the net just before being leveled by a defender. The goal gave Northwestern a 7-6 nonleague win.

After Northwestern (4-3) took a 1-0 lead, Gabe Chies found an opening in the bottom right part of the goal to tie the game with an assist from Kaleb Mains.

At the time, nobody knew that Mains was about to take over the game as he scored twice in the span of 1:45.

Mains’ first goal came from 15 yards out and was a laser that goalkeeper Dane Kauker had no shot at stopping. His next goal was after Alex Younker worked a pass to Mains who was in the perfect position to put a shot just over Kauker’s right shoulder as the Hornets (4-1 EPC, 4-5 overall) got some breathing room with a 3-1 lead going into the second quarter.

The teams swapped goals in the second quarter with Braxton Lakatosh cutting the lead to 3-2 before Younker took advantage of a Northwestern penalty that left the Tigers a man down and reestablished a two-goal lead for Emmaus at 4-2 as the two teams headed into halftime.

The Tigers put the break to good use and switched up their offensive approach, using quicker and more passes to work through the Emmaus defense. The strategy worked and Northwestern scored four unanswered goals to take a 6-4 lead with 7:33 left in the fourth quarter.

Hornet senior Jewlien Torres used his speed to work down the field just to the left of the goal and was unguarded as he approached Kauker with the ball and waited for the perfect moment and deposited his shot past Kauker just: 15 after Northwestern had scored their last goal.

Torres’ goal picked up the rest of the team and they immediately put pressure back on the Northwestern defense and with 5:35 left in regulation Mains found an opening for his third goal, tying the game 6-6.

“He (Torres) made a great play on that go get open and get down there on the quick break,” said Emmaus head coach Justin Fuhrman. “That’s part of the fundamentals that we need, and we had two or three of those types of plays on the last couple of transition plays.

“Even though we were down two goals, Jewlien was patient enough to find a spot where he could make a great play.”

Just before the buzzer sounded to end regulation, Northwestern put a shot on goal that bounded away from Emmaus goalkeeper Logan Schissler and came to rest just in front of the goal line.

The only players who noticed where the ball was laying were the ones too far away to do anything about it and regulation ended with the ball lying there harmlessly in front of the goal as the players ran off the field.

Both teams had opportunities in overtime, but Uricchio was the only one who was able to add a goal to end the game.

“I think the story of our season is that being as young as we are, and playing a team that is also very young, we both made some mistakes throughout the game and we made some good plays as well,” said Fuhrman. “We just have to have people be more consistent with the good plays, but it’s all part of being young.”

Emmaus bounced back with win over Pleasant Valley Thursday.

Mains scored five goals in the win, while Torees had four and Greyson Schmidt had three. Anthony Attar had two goals against the Bears while Alex Younker and Luke Patterson scored one each.

Younker led the Hornets with four assists against Pleasant Valley. Mains assisted on three goals, while Chies (2) and Schmidt (1) also had assists.

Schissler made nine saves in the win.