BETHLEHEM - Saturday wasn’t the first time the Pleasant Valley boys soccer team competed in a District 11 Class 4A quarterfinal in recent years, but it was the first time they arrived there in an unprecedented way.

“We have not practiced for 14 days, and here we come into a district game, and then we were shut down 14 days before that. There’s no other team in (our conference) that only played four games,” said Pleasant Valley coach Alex Wunder.

All things considered, COVID was the bigger demon when the visiting Bears lost their quarterfinal match to Freedom, 4-1.

“Being a team who had a player with COVID, and I know not many teams have, it’s sad for the player and for the team. But you know what? It shows them they’ve got to overcome stuff like that throughout life,” Wunder said. “And that is life.”

Freedom struck first with a goal by Sebastian Garces on an assist by Daniel Ramirez with 11:10 remaining in the first half. Less than a minute later, the Patriots went up 2-0, when Peter Tichy connected on a penalty kick.

“The second goal put us kind of mentally down. Going down by two always hurts, and it’s hard to come back from that in soccer,” said Wunder.

Two more goals were scored shortly before halftime; one by Garces and one by Pleasant Valley’s Onious George on an assist by Matt Erhardt.

“I said to my guys at half, I do think if that goal would’ve been scored five to seven minutes earlier, I think momentum could’ve changed where we maybe could’ve got another one in before half. It just happened too late,” Wunder said.

Garces finished the match with a hat trick, scoring his third goal on an assist by Ramirez with 29:11 remaining in the second half.

“We played them the past four years, so we weren’t going to back down. We came in very serious today,” said Ramirez. “We started the game a bit slow, but then we started moving along, and then everyone else started playing a lot better.”

Pleasant Valley goalie Michael Meyers saved what could have been another Patriot goal, jumping just high enough to slap the ball away late in the second half.

“I think once they get over the sting of the loss, they’re going to realize that they overcame a lot this year,” said Wunder. “It’s what I just said to my guys. We had 28 total days off in the middle of a season with back-to-back COVID scenarios, and my guys worked through it. I mean, to go 4-1 and having 28 days off in your season is actually admirable for them. They did a hell of a job this season.”

ALL DUE RESPECT ... Pleasant Valley and Freedom have faced each other in the district playoffs for several years, so the Patriots said they were never about to underestimate the Bears, and instead, respected how good they thought the Bears could be, despite Pleasant Valley’s shorter season.

WHAT’S NEXT IN DISTRICT PLAYOFFS ... Freedom will take on Emmaus, and Nazareth will face Stroudsburg in semifinal matches, both scheduled to be played on Wednesday.