The Emmaus football team dropped a back-and-forth game against Whitehall last Friday night, 38-31.

The Hornets (2-5) took an early lead on a 37-yard Jerek Cooper touchdown run.

The Zephyrs responded with three straight touchdowns and a field goal before halftime to take a 24-7 lead into intermission.

Emmaus came back in the second half, starting with a 22-yard Gavin Yartymyk field goal and a 19-yard touchdown pass from Cooper to Mason Lenig that closed the margin to 24-17.

Whitehall added another score late in the third quarter before Emmaus got a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns from Jay Santos to take the lead. Santos’ touchdowns came from 15 yards and one yard to give his team a 31-30 lead in the fourth quarter.

The Zephyrs responded with a late touchdown and two-point conversion to take the lead for good.

Emmaus rushed for 317 yards in the game, with Cooper (18 carries, 187 yards) and Santos (21-130) accounting for all of it.

The Hornet defense held Whitehall to 125 yards on the ground, although the Zephs did score four of their five touchdowns on the ground. Emmaus also yielded 243 passing yards and one touchdown through the air.

Cooper went 4-for-9 for 43 yards with one touchdown pass and one interception.

Asher Dougherty led Emmaus with nine tackles, including six tackles for loss.

Joey Glover had five tackles, with three for loss.

Emmaus, which has lost three straight games, heads into the seventh week of the season with games remaining against Dieruff, Allen and Parkland.

The Hornets are ninth in the District 11 rankings after last week’s loss. They will need to climb back into the top eight over the final three weeks of the season to qualify for the District 11 playoffs.