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Hornets Lose At Home To Nazareth

Posted by Emmaus High School Boys Soccer on Oct 03 2019 at 08:32AM PDT in Fall 2019 Season

The Emmaus Boys Soccer Team suffered a third consecutive loss, 2-1 at home on Senior Night, to a motivated 4-9 Nazareth squad. The other members of the EPC Skyline division seem to have solved the Hornets on the second pass through the schedule and injuries continue to take a toll on the Hornets. The Blue Eagles opened the scoring 4 minutes into the game, serving a corner kick that a Nazareth player headed to a teammate who one-touched the bouncing ball into goal from the far side of the box. As the Blue Eagles’ enthusiasm peaked, the Hornet defense faced several assaults in the first half. Senior Eric Johnson, whose energy seems boundless, occupied the defensive midfield to slow the attacks, and the defense largely stood tall. Late in the first half, however, Nazareth lofted a pass to the left of the box. Junior defender Alex Toto read the play and, running full-speed towards the goal to beat an oncoming attacker to the ball, attempted to head the ball out of danger. Unluckily, the ball deflected into the net to put Nazareth up 2-0. Toto, who has been a standout in moving from the midfield to fill a spot in the injury-riddled defense, kept Nazareth from an almost certain third goal early in the second half, hustling to the goal line to head away a chipped ball after junior keeper Chris Buck dove to save a skidding shot and lay sprawled in front of the goal. The Hornets had more success in the second half, changing from a 4-man back line to a 3-man back line. Midway through the half, junior midfielder Pat Walsh, in a crowd on a corner kick, found a high deflected ball and directed a soft header across the front of the goal to senior forward Jake Groh who hammered the ball from mid-air with a stunning bicycle kick to drive in the Hornets only goal of the night. Emmaus dominated possession in the second half and threatened several more times, hitting a ball into the crossbar and several hard shots right at the keeper, but was unable to find a tying goal. Emmaus season record is 13-3-0 overall, 11-3-0 in EPC play.

The Hornet JV continued a 10-game win streak, besting the Blue Eagle JV 4-0. Goal scorers included freshman Blaise Verrastro, sophomore Bryan Flor who scored twice, and freshman Ty Sommer. Flor leads the team with 15 goals this season and the JV defense has not allowed a goal in 11 consecutive games. The JV season record improves to 12-2-2 with a 12-1-1 EPC record.