Green Hornets snap their skid against Vikings
Clinch best record in EPC with win while avenging earlier loss
Jake Fotta and Dylan Darville were prominent members of an Emmaus football team that had a crushing ending to its season three months.
A failed two-point conversion try with 2:44 left gave Freedom a 28-27 win in the District 11 6A semifinals, ending an outstanding Green Hornets season at 10-2.
It’s a different sport, of course, but Fotta and Darville have a chance to get the ending in boys basketball they didn’t get on the gridiron.
They are determined to get Emmaus a championship and looked every bit like a team capable of collecting some gold medals Monday night when the Green Hornets ended the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference regular season with a 59-49 home win over Allentown Central Catholic.
The victory not only gave Emmaus the best record in the EPC at 14-2 and cemented its status as the No. 1 seed in the upcoming tournament, but it also completed the regular season home schedule at 10-0.
The Green Hornets were also out to avenge a 51-39 loss to ACCHS at Rockne Hall on Jan. 20 and end a six-game losing streak to the Vikings.
Darville missed the previous game against Central because he was on a football recruiting trip to his eventual choice, Yale.
He made sure the Vikings knew he was around this time with 12 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, a few steals and other athletic plays at both ends of the floor.
But Emmaus had one of its most complete team efforts of the season, getting 15 points from Fotta, including eight in the fourth quarter; a season-high 12 points from senior Chase Muckey with all of his points in the first half; plus 6 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists from junior Jametric Harris.
Will Barber, who has been the Green Hornets’ leading scorer all season, had just 7 points, but still contributed with 6 rebounds.
“The hallmark of our team all year has been our depth and guys come off the bench for us and perform,” Emmaus coach Steve Yoder said. “People like to talk about the big three , and I understand that. But we have depth and was coming off an illness and still played 31 minutes and 30 seconds tonight and had a lot of rebounds. Central had just one offensive rebound tonight and he had a lot to do with that.”
Yoder said he hopes his team is peaking at the right time.
Emmaus hasn’t won a league title since taking a Lehigh Valley Conference championship in 2012 and and hasn’t won district gold since 1986.
Last year’s team finished 16-8, but didn’t win a postseason game. The Green Hornets will host No. 7 seed Liberty on Friday night in the EPC quarterfinals.
But before getting to the playoffs, Emmaus wanted to show it could keep its dominance going at home, especially against a Central team that won in the Hornets’ nest 55-26 last year.
“We had this one circled on our calendar and we were 9-0 at home and we didn’t go out as seniors having lost our last home game,” said Fotta, a quarterback who will play football at East Stroudsburg University. “We really wanted this one.”
Fotta noted how much of a difference Darville, a record-breaking wide receiver, makes for his team on the hardwood.
“Dylan did a great job of driving and kicking it back out,” Fotta said. “He does really well with that. He has great vision. He’s arguably our best player. He drives, he kicks, he shoots the ball, he rebounds … he’s a great all-around player.”
Emmaus took advantage of eight turnovers by Central in the first quarter to open an 18-12 lead and then Vikings made just 4 of 13 shots in the second period to fall behind 36-23 at halftime.
But ACCHS held Emmaus to just seven points in the third quarter and got a combined three 3-pointers from Anthony Jones and NaSean Davis to close within 43-39 early in the fourth period.
Jahrel Vigo scored six straight points for ACCHS and his steal and layup with 3:10 got the Vikings within 52-49, but they wouldn’t score again.
Harris scored off a Fotta feed to make it 54-49, Darville made three free throws to widen the gap and a Fotta steal and layup capped the scoring. By getting offensive rebounds off missed free throws, Emmaus kept the ball for nearly 2 minutes in one pivotal stretch.
“We have heart and that’s the most important thing,” Fotta said. “When we’re down, we bring each other up. You can see that in some of the games we’ve played. It’s our nature to be competitive and what happened in football is in the back of our heads. We want to finish strong. We want a gold medal. We haven’t won a gold in any sport and we want to get one.”
Meanwhile, ACCHS will regroup in an effort to make its own gold rush.
Vikings coach Dennis Csensits has seen his team bounce back from an 0-4 start and then a disappointing loss at Bethlehem Catholic on Dec. 22. He hopes they can rebound again.
“If you’re going to play a really good team on their home floor, you’re obviously going to have to play a lot better than we played tonight,” he said. “I give Emmaus credit. They came out with a much deeper focus than we had tonight. Defensively, we weren’t on our game in the first half and they really took the game to us. It took us awhile to adjust.”
The Vikings (14-8, 11-5) are still headed to the EPC tournament and are expected to get a home game Friday night as the No. 4 seed against No. 5 Freedom.
“We’ve got to move on from this and get ready for the EPC tournament,” Csensits said. “This is a resilient group and I don’t think we’ve reached our potential yet. We’ve just scratched the surface. We need to get more guys to be more consistent with their approach and their performance for us to be able to make some noise in both the league and district tournaments.”