CATASAUQUA — Rebuilding any sports program requires those involved to experience the growing pains of defeat even after reaching a certain goal.

Palmerton’s boys soccer team faced this reality Monday, as the Blue Bombers fell to Moravian Academy for the second time this season with a 4-0 setback in the Colonial League quarterfinal.

Palmerton has seen the fruits of its labor this season, going 9-6-2, qualifying for the district playoffs, and finishing as the sixth seed in the Colonial League.

This was a major milestone for the Bombers after going a combined 8-42-2 and only winning four league games over the previous three seasons. Coach Antonio Orlando emphasized how important this was for the program.

“I’m very proud of this team,” he said. “For three years in a row, we got beat up. Now we made districts and we made leagues. We started from scratch, and I thought we did a good job.”

Palmerton’s reward for its success this seasons was a rematch from Sept. 16 against a 12-6 Moravian Academy team that defeated the Bombers 6-0 and finished as the third seed in the Colonial League.

The game started with both teams trading chances early, with both goalkeepers needing to make early saves to keep the game scoreless.

Moravian would then begin to control the pace of the game and break the ice less than eight minutes into the first half when senior Hasan Strandzhev converted on a penalty kick.

After giving up the first goal, Palmerton began to have a difficult time keeping up with Moravian’s pace, as the Lions would score their second of the game less than 10 minutes later, courtesy of senior Oliver Pervizpour. Moravian would cap off the first half with a third goal less than 12 minutes later when Strandzhev scored his second goal of the night on a free kick.

Trailing 3-0 and in need of offense in the second half, Palmerton struggled to generate consistent ball possession and scoring chances, as Moravian showed impressive defensive discipline by not allowing a single shot on goal from the Bombers in the second half.

The Lions would go on to ice the game midway through the half as Strandzhev tallied his third goal of the game.

Despite the defeat, coach Orlando was impressed with how his team played against a strong opponent.

“In the first half, we had two opportunities to score, but we got unlucky,” he said about their early scoring chances. “Overall, they’re a pretty good team. They’ve been together for a while.”

The Bombers were also faced with the adversity of losing sophomore Dillon Anthony to an injury during the game, and the team playing at less than full strength.

Despite these obstacles, Orlando is optimistic about his team’s recovery and is already preparing for its district playoff game next week.

“We’re playing Notre Dame I think, and I think we have a pretty good chance of winning that game,” he said. “So hopefully the boys recover from the injuries ... and we’ve got to play a little stronger.”

While the season may not be over for Palmerton just yet, Orlando is already looking forward to how his team builds off of the success from this season.

“(We’ve) just got a lot of freshman, and hopefully by next year they’ll be a little bit stronger,” he said about the team’s younger players.