The Emmaus football team needed a win before it heads into East Penn Conference play.

The Hornets (1-2) got just what they were looking for in a 42-0 rout of Scranton in a nonleague game Friday night.

Senior linebacker Monolo Bermudez made his debut at running back for Emmaus and piled up 186 yards on 10 carries after starter Anthony Attar suffered an injury and came out of the game.

Attar was averaging nearly seven yards per carry (6 rushes, 69 yards) before leaving the game.

With the Hornet offensive line creating plenty of space, Bermudez led a rushing attack that accumulated 390 yards against the Knights.

“We didn’t expect for our starting running back to go down,” said Bermudez. “I have never been a running back in a varsity game. The linemen did exactly what they were supposed to do. The fullback did what he was supposed to do. We all did what we were supposed to and we executed the way we wanted to.

“Counter was working for us. The hole was wide open and I was able to get out of there.”

The Hornets established their superiority on their first drive, going 76 yards in nine plays without facing a third down during the possession.

Attar scampered into the end zone untouched from six yards out for a 7-0 lead with 3:43 left in the first quarter.

Emmaus’ next scoring drive came in the second quarter when a 58-yard Bermudez run set up a 9-yard touchdown pass from Kellen Hafner to tight end Ty Laird for a 14-0 lead with 7:11 left before halftime.

Bermudez ran for the next touchdown, breaking free from 13 yards out to reach the end zone. The key play on that dive came when the Hornets were facing a third-and-20 and Hafner connected with tight end Mason Lenig on a 29-yard pass. Three plays later Bermudez scored.

The Hornets’ last score of the first half came when Bermudez took a handoff at the Emmaus 26-yard line and went all the way to the Scranton 18 before fumbling. Nik Castro scooped up the ball and toted it the rest of the way for a 28-0 lead with less than a minute before halftime.

The Emmaus defense forced the Knights to go three-and-out on three of their six first-half possessions. The Hornets allowed just 32 yards in the first half and 102 for the game.

Jerel Robinson led the Hornets with five tackles, including two for loss, and one forced fumble. Shane Leyden had four tackles. Logan Brouse made three tackles, including two for loss.

Emmaus put the game into the mercy rule on its first possession of the second half when Hafner and wide receiver Quez Pletz connected on a 51-yard touchdown pass.

George Marmoros kicked his fifth extra point of the game to make it 35-0 with 10:34 left in the third quarter.

Anderson Lenig capped the scoring with a 67-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter and Marmaros finished off a 6-for-6 effort on extra points to make it 42-0.

After losses to Neshaminy and Phillipsburg to start the season, Emmaus now heads into EPC play with a win under its belt.

“Coming from 0-2 and bouncing back with a shutout it feels great,” said Bermudez. “We came into the game knowing we could dominate this team. We were confident coming into this game and we did exactly what we thought we were going to do.

“We executed way better than the last two games. It was little mistakes and that’s what we cleaned up in practice.”

The Hornets will take on a 3-0 Pocono Mountain East team next week. The Cardinals have beaten Dieruff, Bangor and Allen this season.

“We feel good getting the win,” said Hornet head coach Harold Fairclough. “That’s the bottom line; we needed to get in the win column. We feel really good about that and we’re going to enjoy that.

“Just like every other game there’s things that we need to improve on. There’s mistakes we have to clean up. We’re going to enjoy the win and we’ll get back to work in 24 hours.”

Bermudez said he expects his team to win its next seven games, go unbeaten for the rest of the regular season. If the Hornets do that, no one will remember the 0-2 start.

“It’s not how you start it’s how you finish,” said Fairclough.