NORTHAMPTON - Pleasant Valley did what favorites are supposed to do in the postseason.

The top-seeded Bears jumped all over Nazareth early during their Eastern Pennsylvania Conference semifinal match-up on Friday and cruised to a 15-6 victory.

PV scored nine unanswered goals in the opening frame, as the Eagles barely touched the ball during those first 12 minutes.

It was a stark contrast from the first time the two teams played this season.

“We obviously didn’t have a great start last time and it kind of got us all flustered,” said the Bears’ Rylee Rath about trailing Nazareth 4-1 back on April 9 before coming back to gain a 15-5 win.

“We were like, ‘We’re not used to this,’ so we kind of went into it not taking this game lightly.”

Rath made sure the start would be different this time.

The sophomore scored 33 seconds into the contest to give the Bears an early advantage. Olivia Iandoli scored moments later off a strange bounce before Devon Bush tallied from the free position to make it 3-0.

“We played a very composed game today,” said Pleasant Valley head coach Toni Bush. “When we played them that first time, we had a yellow card and they were able to put four quick ones in on us in that quarter. Today, we came in knowing that as long as we played composed we would be ok. And they did. They did a really nice job.”

Rath, Iandoli and Bush all scored for a second time in the opening period, pushing the lead to 6-0 before the Eagles took a timeout.

That didn’t slow down PV - which improved to 19-0 on the season. Bush set up Rath for another goal and then scored herself off the free position. With 18.7 seconds left in the quarter, Rath beat the Eagles’ goalie high off yet another free position to extend the margin to 9-0.

“They’re big,” said Rath of taking advantage of free positions. “It’s literally like an open goal, practically. There’s one defender on one side and another on the other side. It’s just having pre-set before the whistle blows where I’m going to go, and committing to it. I try to have some pre-knowledge of what I’m going to do.”

Something else Rath did to help her team take control was dominate the draw controls. She won every one in the first frame to give the Bears unlimited possession.

“That’s something that I’ve really emphasized this past year, because draws win games a lot of times,” said Rath. “Kind of learning to read where the draw is, and how to communicate to my circle players.”

Nazareth (12-6) was able to get on the board, scoring twice to start the second period, but Bush found the net twice after that on free positions. Bush then added another assist, setting up Rath to give the Bears a double-digit lead at 12-2.

“They work so well together,” said Coach Bush about Devon and Rylee. “Tonight, Devon was face-guarded the whole game, so she works to get other people open then. That’s how they work. They work really well. Rylee is also so agile, and we keep the ball moving.”

With a driving rain during the second half and the result already determined, play got a little sloppy. The Bears maintained their double-digit advantage most of the time to keep the clock running, advancing them to Tuesday’s final against Emmaus.

Another PV victory would result in its third straight EPC title.

“It would be exciting, for sure, to win,” said Coach Bush. “That’s obviously our goal. We’ve gone up against Emmaus before. It’s definitely going to be a challenge. Emmaus always is. It’s always a tough physical game against them. But as long as we can play our disciplined style ... we’ll see what happens. Anything can happen on any given day.”

“It’s great,” added Rath about making it to the finals. “It’s such a cool thing having an undefeated season and still going in the postseason.”

SCORING LOG ... Rath scored four times in the first period and ended with a team-high eight. Bush added five goals and also picked up two assists. Iandoli tossed in two goals, while goalie Abygail Borger made six saves.

TITLE MATCH-UP ... Pleasant Valley defeated Emmaus 13-6 on March 19 in the Bears’ second game of the season. The seven-goal spread in that game is the closest a team has come against PV this season. Besides the Emmaus contest, Crestwood and Easton have also lost by “only” seven goals to the Bears.