Emmaus boys suffer 2OT loss in PIAA 4A semifinal
LANGHORNE — His scholastic soccer career ended seconds earlier, Emmaus senior captain Hudson Peck, with mud caked on his Green Hornets jersey and tears in his eyes, spoke softly but proudly into a microphone.
“This stinks,” said Peck, sniffling between words.
“We’ve done so much to get here and this result is really hard. I’m proud of all these guys, the seniors, our entire team. It just didn’t work out tonight.”
Emmaus, which was about 15 minutes away from the state finals, suffered a gut-wrenching 2-1 two-overtime loss to District 1 champion Neshaminy in an intense PIAA Class 4A semifinals at Neshaminy High School.
Senior Connor Steele struck for the golden goal with 11 minutes, 55 second remaining in the second OT — a very timely first goal of his varsity career.
The Redskins, at 13-1-2, advance to Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. championship showdown in Hershey.
Coach John Cari’s District 11 champion Green Hornets, whose season ends at 14-2, looked as if they were destined for Chocolatetown, USA, when Peck scored in the eighth minute off a fine
feed from Josh Whalen.
Emmaus then did what it does best — dig in on defense — deep into the second half. But Neshaminy turned up the pressure and eventually broke through with 15:07 left.
AJ Rivera took the throw-in from Ryan Schoneman and blasted a shot past Ty Bleiler, who again was stout in goal for Emmaus. A Schoneman throw-in also preceded Steele’s game-winner.
“It’s a tough situation,” said Cari, whose squad this season won its first state playoff game since 2006. “Their throw-in is dangerous and we saw it a lot tonight.
“It was windy and the wind favored it. The ball bounced and it took an unlucky bounce off our guy. It’s nothing more.
“It’s a hard loss to take and a bad break, but we had a fantastic season. I have no shame. I’m super proud of what we did tonight and all season.”
Steele, who entered with one assist this season, said perfecting throw-ins are always a part of Neshaminy’s practice routine.
“We executed it really well tonight,” the midfielder said. “We’ve had a lot of close calls with it and tonight it worked out. Once I headed it, I turned and saw
it bounce through a couple legs and off the goalie’s hands. I really don’t know if was deflected, but it went in. It couldn’t have felt any better.”
Emmauspicked up its pace in the first overtime period and couldn’t quite take advantage over several solid sequences on its end.
The Green Hornets got off seven shots on goal while Neshaminy finished with nine on frame.
Emmaus, which wonasecond straight district title and made its 10th straight finals appearance, graduates nine seniors off this year’s team, including captains Peck and Alexzander Toto. Bleiler and defensive anchor Jaeden Amato both will be back.
Evening though the end was tough, Peck said he’ll reflect on all the success and good times.
“Honestly, our state win will be the highlight to me,” he said. “That really showed something. I’m really proud of everyone and it was a lot of fun playing with this team. There were lots of great memories over the past four years.”
Michael Blouse is a freelance writer. PIAA CLASS 4A SEMIFINALS
NESHAMINY 2, EMMAUS 1(2OT)
Emmaus 1000— 1
Neshaminy 0101— 2
Emmaus: Goal: Hudson Peck. Assist: Josh Whalen. SOG: 7. Corners: 5. Saves: Ty Bleiler 7.
Neshaminy: Goals: AJ Rivera, Connor Steele. Assists: Ryan Schoeneman 2. SOG: 9. Corners: 11. Saves: Trevor Rush 6.