POTTSVILLE - Every coach knows that it's difficult to defeat a team three times in the same calendar season.

Shenandoah Valley topped Weatherly three weeks ago in a regular season game for the second time, which was decided by just four points. The writing was on the wall for the District 11 Class A quarterfinal clash between the two Schuylkill League foes to be a competitive contest.Shenandoah Valley held a two-point lead in the second quarter during a sequence before intermission. Thanks to a plethora of second-chance points and fantastic foul shooting, the Blue Devils pulled away and defeated the Lady Wreckers for the third time, 54-37."It's scary," said Shenandoah Valley head coach Chris Conroy. "When you're a team that won the first two, you're trying to do the same things that you've done, and you don't know what the other team is going to do. The other team is likely to make changes and do things you haven't seen, which can be tricky - and they did do that. It looked like it would be a wild game to the finish, and they gave us all we could handle today."Weatherly's defense kept it close for a majority of the first half. The Lady Wreckers forced seven Shenandoah turnovers in the first period."We wanted to press and get them crazy," explained Weatherly head coach Kevin Kringe. "We were always kind of chasing rather than pressing, though. We just didn't cash in on our opportunities. Some balls went out of bounds, we didn't make some layups. In the middle of the game it was 22-20, we just needed that one stop and to get a bucket and tie the game. Instead, they made a little run and we're fighting the good fight again. I'm proud of the effort though, they played really hard."Freshman Emily Zoscin was the Weatherly heartbeat. The point guard piled in a game-high 18 points and corralled five rebounds."She has to be our offense and she has to take their best player out…she's a lot like her coach," said Kringe. "I have a no-die mentality. She's going to live and die every battle, she doesn't back down from anything, which is why she gets in foul trouble sometimes. A lot was expected from her and I'm really proud. She's the spirit of the press, and the life of the offense."But, it seemed that every ball that bounced off the rim was grabbed by a Shenandoah Valley player in the second half. Emily Wargo recorded 12 points and 10 rebounds."That was our advantage against them," said Conroy. "We had to control the boards and get points in the paint. I thought we moved the ball well when we didn't turn it over. We didn't get as many shots as we would have liked, but we did some nice things. Weatherly does that to you; they can make you look ugly sometimes. It's a bit of credit to them, they forced their style. We finally seemed to calm down toward the end of the third quarter and we got some separation."Saturday marked Weatherly's first District 11 appearance since 2005. Kringe is optimistic that the drought will be over for good.He said, "It just wasn't meant to be. I'm so proud of them, just to get here. We got our feet wet, and I told them, we'll be back. We got a taste of this, and this is a tough place to get your first win, we might have been a little foggy at the start. They got this experience and we'll be back next year. They're the first ones that broke through. The first one is always special."ONE BY ONE … Shenandoah shot 32 foul shots and made 20 of them. Sixteen of its attempts came in the fourth quarter. Alaina DeMalis drained nine of 12 from the line.Conroy said, "She didn't shoot almost all week because of a wrist injury," Conroy said. "Yesterday was the first time she shot. She came in for extra free throws today at noon. It's nice when you put the extra work in and it pays off in a big game."HARD WORK PAYS OFF … Last week Kringe said he's been selling the dream of postseason action to his team since his arrival with the program two years ago.He said, "They made little notches in their belts. We won a couple of tough ones, and made districts. We made a pretty nice belt, and it's going to be hard for next year's juniors to repeat the success. The light bulb went on, and when push came to shove, we did what we had to do to get into the playoffs."WEATHERLYZoscin 3-12-16-18, Hoffman 0-0-0-0, Caravella 0-0-0-0, DeSpirites 0-0-0-0, Gower 0-0-0-0, Henry 0-0-0-0, Berger 3-0-2-7, Hartz 1-2-2-4, Ache 0-0-0-0, Gillott 1-0-0-2, Peifer 3-0-0-6. TOTALS: 11-14-20-37.SHENANDOAH VALLEYA.DeMalis 0-9-12-9, E.DeMalis 2-1-1-6, Teashanko 2-2-4-6, Creasy 4-4-7-14, Wargo 4-4-8-12, Najera 1-0-0-3, Mechalik 2-0-0-4. TOTALS: 15-20-32-54.Weatherly 4 10 10 13 - 37Shenandoah 7 15 9 23 - 54Three-pointers: Weatherly - Berger 1; Shenandoah - E. Demalis 1, Creasy 2, Najera 1.