It was a complete 180 from last year to this year in the 2024 regular season finale

Last fall, the Emmaus High School football team earned a 27-0 victory against rival Parkland to clinch the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference’s Lehigh Division. But in 2025, it was the Trojans who stood tall and beat the Hornets 34-13 last Friday night to win the division at Parkland School District Stadium.

Parkland (10-0) finished an undefeated regular season and earned the two seed in the District 11 6A playoffs. Emmaus ended 4-6 and secured the final bid in districts as the eighth seed.

Trojan running back TJ Lawrence won the Battle of Cedar Crest Boulevard offensive player of the game honors with 141 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Liam Spang had seven total tackles and was named Parkland’s defensive player of the game.

For Emmaus, running back Jay Santos scored two touchdowns and ran for 68 yards to earn offensive player of the game and Robert Edwards was named defensive player of the game with seven tackles.

“It was a tough loss to them last year,” said Lawrence. “But coming into this year, we had this game in our minds and we wanted a little revenge. We’re happy about it. Obviously, you have to fight back through adversity, and we’re going to have some in the playoffs.

“I thought we fought back well tonight after getting down. Like [head] coach [Tim] Moncman told us, we’ve got 24 hours to celebrate this, and then the next season starts. We’ll be ready.”

Emmaus actually jumped out in front early as the Green Hornets scored the game’s first six points, getting the first of two touchdown runs by Santos from 27 yards away to go up 6-0. But the Trojans would answer to the tune of 27 unanswered points.

Quarterback Jerek Cooper finished with 127 yards through the air. Kai Jefferson-Rushing, playing in just his second game after suffering a broken collarbone just before the season started, helped setup his team’s opening score with a long 32-yard catch.

The Hornet defense kept the Trojans off the scoreboard through the first quarter, but the hosts responded with 21 points on three touchdowns in the second quarter, including two TD runs by Lawrence and a four-yard pass from Finn Coen to Jaren Sanchez. Lawrence added his third score in the third quarter and Blake Nassry caught a 14-yard TD pass from Coen in the fourth to cap off the scoring.

Parkland outgained Emmaus 317-211 in total yards. Coen went 8-of-13 through the air for 94 yards and the two scores. Nassim Adams caught three passes for 49 yards. Naquan Thomason rushed for 34 yards.

Parkland now leads the all-time series 45-21-2. Since 2016, the Green Hornets and Trojans had split 12 meetings entering Friday’s game. The Trojans will host the seventh seed, Stroudsburg, this Friday night in the District 11 6A quarterfinal.