Pleasant Valley fought, scratched and clawed in its District 11 4A boys soccer quarterfinal against Parkland Wednesday.

The No. 6 seed Bears took the No. 3 seed Trojans to the edge on their home pitch, but in the end, Parkland was able to come away with a clutch goal with under a minute remaining to narrowly defeat PV, 2-1.

The match was a back-and-forth battle from the beginning. The Trojans were able to get the first goal across in the 35th minute of the first half from Logan Thrash. Thrash received a nice cross from Josh Daniels and was able to finish, putting the ball into the net from the left side.

Pleasant Valley, however, would answer quickly when forward Ryan Denninger scored off an assist from Royce Thompson. The play would come off an indirect kick that was finished off by Denninger in the 33rd minute to make it a 1-1 match.

“You know, I always tell my forwards to get confidence and to turn and go play. There’s no need to drop it back every time, and that’s what we were able to do on that goal,” said Pleasant Valley head coach Isaac Blagogee. “That was a really good job by both guys on that play. They found the confidence in themselves and finished.”

After two quick goals in the first seven minutes of play, the defensive battle would then commence.

For the next 32 minutes of the first half, neither team was able to put together much offense, but Parkland did put together a few runs with its best chance to score around the 18:20 mark when the Trojans were able to break free.

It was one-on-one with the Parkland player and PV goalie Zach Pandolfo, and Pandolfo was able to make a diving save with the ball glancing off to left side.

“Zach is a senior experienced goaltender, and this game tonight would not have been where it was without him,” said Blagogee. “Both of our goaltenders have worked hard all season long to get better, and tonight there’s nothing I can say more about Zach’s performance. He was great for us. He worked his tail off all night long and made some great saves.”

The Bears would get a good opportunity early in the second half around the 35:50 mark on a missed shot attempt from the left side, and just 10 minutes later Parkland would put together two opportunities that it couldn’t convert.

A chance at the 25:34 mark that was right in front of the goal that was cut off by a Bears defender, and another in the 20th minute where a Trojans player had a clean shot again one-on-one from about 15 yards out, but he fired it directly at Pandolfo, who came up with the save.

It was Parkland that was finally able to capitalize. A late run with just under a minute reminding culminated in a score when Luke Blenis received a beautiful pass from Kyle Tobia and Blenis fired a thunderous strike into the right side of the goal.

“Yeah, we were finally able to get one to go in there. But we are always preaching patience, and to continue to work the ball in and play together. Kyle put an absolutely laser pass into Luke our center back, who is an All-State player for us and he put a great shot on the ball,” said Parkland head coach Scott Mang. “We were able to make some adjustments on the fly tonight, and they paid off at the end. But credit to Pleasant Valley. That team worked their socks off tonight, and put us under pressure all game long.”

Unfortunately for PV, it wasn’t able to come through with a goal in the final moments, but it was a hard-fought performance from the Bears in a tough road environment.

“Credit to Parkland. They got the better of us tonight, but our guys came out to play and out to fight for every inch tonight,” said Blagogee. “I am so proud of their effort. Our boys played the best game tonight that I have yet to see, so I am walking away very proud of them for that.”

SHOTS ON GOAL

… Parkland did hold an advantage on shots on goal in the match. The Trojans had 15, while the Bears had five. Pandolfo made 13 saves for PV, while Dan Sipling stopped four shots for the Trojans.

NEXT UP

… No. 3 seed Parkland will advance to play No. 2 seed Emmaus on Tuesday Oct. 31.