Derek Strohl knew he would need to rely on his defense during his first season as the Pleasant Valley girls soccer coach.

Over the last few days, Strohl has watched that defense come up big in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference playoffs.The Bears followed Saturday's penalty kick upset of No. 2 Easton by stunning No. 3 seeded Whitehall, 1-0, in Tuesday's semifinal round.With the win, Pleasant Valley is one step closer to verifying that old sports cliché "Defense wins championships."The Bears will play top-seeded Parkland for the EPC title on Thursday."I knew at the beginning of the season we would have a strong defense and it showed tonight," Strohl said. "It showed against Easton. It's been there throughout the entire season, but it was just a matter of can we get the timely scoring when we need it and tonight we got it."Nearly four minutes after a goal was disallowed, Erin Sharpe refused to let that damper PV's hopes. Instead, the senior midfielder gave the Bears the timely goal they needed to keep their hopes alive.In a play, which developed off a penalty corner, Jamie Masullo sent the ball into the box. A Whitehall defender headed the ball in an attempt to clear it. Sharpe, who admitted she decided to stay back rather than attack the net, made the right choice as the ball came in her direction. With little hesitation, she fired it to the back left corner of the Zephyrs' net for what turned out to be the game's lone goal."It took some time, but the ball was there so I finished it off," said Sharpe, who scored with 30:29 left in the second half. "Once I scored, we kept it up. We tried to keep on the attack and our defense worked really hard."The Bears' defense definitely came up big and when Whitehall did get off a shot goalies Renee Milos and Mikaela Miller, who once again split time in the net, came up big."Both teams got a few good looks," Strohl said. "But our defensive mentality was don't give them clean shots and for the most part we did exactly that."The three seniors in the back - Erica Neff, Zoe Dorney, and Amanda Gaba - were huge tonight. Sara Coyle in the middle also played a big part. It was just a great team defensive effort."ALMOST ... With 34:35 left in the second half, Masullo took a direct kick for PV. It deflected off the hands of the Zephyrs' keeper and it looked as if the Bears' Abby Leach poked it in for what appeared to be her team's first goal. The back net even rippled as if the ball had caused the action. However, the referees called it a no goal.HAPPY 30TH, COACH ... Derek Strohl received one of the best gifts any coach could want on his birthday - the right to play for a conference championship. Not only did the Bears' student section sing Happy Birthday to him prior to the start of the game, his victorious Lady Bears sang it again in the post-game huddle.LOOKING AHEAD ... With Parkland up next, Strohl knows the Bears will be facing a huge challenge. "It's going to take our best game yet," he said. "We're playing really well at the right time these last two weeks, but Parkland is on another level. So, we're going to have to bring our "A" game."