Pleasant Valley first-year head boys soccer coach Issac Blagogee had a midseason epiphany about his team.

Blagogee knew he had a very young team and expected a slow process.

Soon after, he realized his team could compete with any other team.

In his team’s 2-1 overtime loss at Northampton Saturday in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference (EPC) opening-round playoffs, Blagogee had another reminder of their progress.

“I was at a loss for words,” Blagogee said about his feelings after the game. “It was a tough one to take. They got a goal with about eight minutes left. The boys took it hard because they were right there.

“It was a back-and-forth game throughout. We played very well, but a couple of mistakes in our backend hurt us.”

Northampton, the second seed, opened the scoring at 36:11 in regulation when Jackson Vajda found the net for Northampton. Pleasant Valley, the seventh seed, tied the game when Ryan Denniger scored on a header just under two minutes later at 34:03 with an assist from David Chamera.

Vajda then broke the tie with the game-winner at 8:40 of overtime.

Both teams had 15 shots on goal, and Pleasant Valley had three corner kicks. Bears’ goalie Michael Myers made 11 saves.

Despite the loss, getting to any type of postseason this year was a victory. Initially, their 11-6-1 regular-season record wasn’t an expected one.

“We have only four seniors, and we start five freshmen,” said Blagogee. “We are a very young team. This was supposed to be a building season. I didn’t think we would make districts, especially not the EPC playoffs.

“But we beat Freedom, Liberty, tied Easton, and lost 1-0 to Emmaus and 2-0 to Northampton. It changed our outlook, and our season turned into a good one. We had 13 seniors last year and we didn’t make the EPC playoffs.”

Blagogee noted they have four seniors on their current roster, and two of them are starters. There are two starting juniors and sophomores apiece, and five freshmen have gotten the nod to start.

He added his bench consists of freshmen and sophomores.

“It’s great to see what we have done with a young team,” he said. “But they have really matured on the field, and that has been the big difference. We also have a good number of middle school players, who will be able to help us next year.

“We have shown we can play with any team around, and we don’t believe we are done yet.

The Bears currently are fifth in the District 11 Class 4A bracket. If the playoffs opened today, they would face fourth-seeded Nazareth.

“We will probably get Nazareth, but you never know,” said Blagogee. “But we can’t worry about who we are playing. Soccer is soccer. We just have to continue to play our game.”

TALENTED KIDS ... Northampton improved to 17-2 on the season, having lost only to Whitehall and Parkland. The Kids will take on sixth-seeded Whitehall in the EPC semifinals. The Zephyrs upset third-seeded Parkland.

RETURN TO ACTION ... Pleasant Valley won’t return to action until the district quarterfinals, which are scheduled to begin on Oct. 26.