The Pleasant Valleys girls soccer team proved many things on Tuesday night. But the main thing the Bears established in their District 11 opener was that they could handle adversity.

In sports, adversity can strike at any time and last night it certainly hit the Bears in their playoff match-up against Pottsville.The Bears, who were already playing without top goal scorer Erin Sharpe, lost top contributors Morgan Covart and Faith D'Amato to injuries during the course of the game against the Tide.Despite the personnel losses, Pleasant Valley was a big winner on the field as it rolled to a 4-0 District 11 Class AAA victory."There was no doubt we had a challenge in front after losing the caliber of players that we did," said Pleasant Valley coach Derek Strohl. "I couldn't be more proud of how the girls reacted. Every one that got in there tonight did a great job and stepped up in a big time situation."Two big reasons for the Bears' success were dominant defense and offensive pressure.Pleasant Valley (14-8) spent most of its time on the Tide's side of the field, applying pressure on their goalkeeper."We just did a great job tonight of anticipating the play," said Strohl. "We applied pressure throughout the game and we completed our goal of not letting them have too much space to turn on us offensively. They have some girls up top with speed, so you didn't want to give them that opportunity."Abby Leach led the Pleasant Valley offensive charge with two goals. She scored the first goal of the ball game at the 24 minute mark in the first half off an assist from Jamie Masullo. She would then add her second goal of the night off of a penalty kick after teammate Covart was taken down in the box and injured.Being one of the only experienced goal scorers left on the field for the Bears, Leach knew she had to step up and lead."My teammates gave me great opportunities to score tonight with some great passing," said Leach. "We have been passing the ball well all season long and tonight we finished, which is key for us. That's been something we've struggled with at time this year, but today we put it all together."After Leach's second goal of the night the Bears kept the pressure coming.Elma Sabovich got a goal at the 20 minute mark of the second half off an assist from Amanda Gaba and Natalie Kautz scored the final PV goal with nine minutes remaining off a Masullo assist."That's a good team over there and you have to give them a ton of credit for how they were able to keep us from getting scoring opportunities," said Pottsville coach Bob Stock, whose team finishes its season at 12-6-1. "I'm proud of the way my girls played tonight. They played hard the entire game and gave it everything they had."UP NEXT ... Pleasant Valley will now travel to Whitehall for a quarterfinal round contest on Thursday at 7:15 to face the host Zephyrs. The two teams split their regular season games.INJURY BUG ... Pleasant Valley could possibly be without three of its top players against Whitehall as Sharpe, who was injured prior to Tuesday's game, along with Covart and D'Amato are all questionable.DOMINANT EFFORT ... The Bears not only dominated on the scoreboard, but also in the shots on goal department. PV ended with a 15-3 advantage.DISTRIBUTION DYNAMO ... Every team needs a good passer and for the Bears it's evident that Masullo fills that role. Masullo made some terrific passes against the Tide with two of them leading to goals. The ability to lead a teammate and put the ball in just the right spot is a special skill and Masullo has it.