The Emmaus High School boys lacrosse team continued its winning tradition in 2026 under second-year head coach Justin Fuhrman.

The Hornets went 10-10 overall and 6-3 in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, qualifying for both the EPC and District 11 tournaments. They fell short of winning gold, but look to achieve those goals next season.

“Our 2026 season solidified the foundation of who we are trying to be as Emmaus lacrosse moving forward,” said Fuhrman. “Players committed to work ethic, effort and accountability during the offseason. Once spring arrived, we had a ton of highs and some lows as well. Moving forward we need to focus on consistency and execution.

“Getting back to the EPC playoffs and continuing to challenge ourselves in districts was a good step forward. Our guys battled to the end, and we couldn’t be prouder. Moving forward we need to achieve our potential, and the sky’s the limit for this group in 2027.”

Emmaus showed it could compete with the top teams in the league and district during a pair of one-goal losses in May that Fuhrman said were his team’s best games of the year.

One came in the regular season finale Parkland, 10-9. The next one was a 14-13 setback to Easton in the first round of the league tournament. The Rovers won their third straight league title this year. The Trojans won the district title.

Overtime wins over Northwestern and Nazareth in April set the tone for the Hornets to play their best late in the season.

“Two overtime/double overtime wins in the middle of the season helped us realize that we can perform in crunch time,” Fuhrman said. “We’ve learned how to compete against great teams, now we need to put in the work on the fundamentals in the offseason and have the confidence that we belong and finish the job next year.”

The Hornets will graduate 12 seniors this year, including Elijah Burrell, Collin Garrett, Aiden Issler, Jonah Labeda, Ryan Maloney, Javien Mercado, Rowan Muller, Luke Patterson, Jace Pilarksi, Christian Quigley, Jack Restino and Logan Schissler.

“This group of seniors may have been the first class that truly began building what we want this program to be,” said Fuhrman. “Our first two years as a staff we were trying to figure out what did and did not work with our guys. This year we put some core pillars in place that will pay dividends for years moving forward, and this senior group truly bought into the hard work and attitude we needed to get going in the right direction. We appreciate everything they’ve given over the past four years.”

Sophomore Alex Younker led the attack with 34 goals and eight assists and also collected 34 ground balls. Classmates Danny Maloney tallied 31 goals and 24 assists and had 21 ground balls, while Greyson Schmidt finished with 24 goals and 14 assists, with 15 ground balls and 12 faceoffs won.

Junior Anthony Attar recorded 23 goals, 13 assists and 33 ground balls. Garrett contributed 14 goals and nine assists on offense and won a team-high 134 faceoffs. Sophomore Samuel Pechulis added 13 goals and six assists. Freshman Liam Lewis finished with 169 saves in net.

There are plenty of talented underclassmen returning for a run at titles next season.

“We have five of six starters back on offense, plenty of experience back on defense and a group of incoming freshmen that just won the LV youth league as the No. 1 seed,” Fuhrman said. “We need to guard against assuming that success will be given just because of our potential, but I love this group and believe they will be focused and driven after how our season ended this year.”