STROUDSBURG – There was a sense of urgency in Tuesday’s Eastern Pennsylvania Conference girls soccer quarterfinal between Pleasant Valley and Stroudsburg.

The two teams faced each other five days before the playoff match, with Pleasant Valley shutting out the Mountaineers in their second meeting of the season.

But the third time was the charm for Stroudsburg, as it held off a late Bears charge in the second half to hold on for a 2-1 victory.

Pleasant Valley head coach Derek Strohl saw his team get several opportunities to tie it up, but were unable to score again.

“We kind of knew it was going to be a tight game,” Strohl said. “They came out with energy. They found one in the first half, and they had control for like the first 12 minutes of the second half. That’s how they got the second one. I’m glad though; it kind of shows that we were resilient.”

Strohl’s team started off slow as Stroudsburg scored first when the Mounties capitalized on a controversial corner kick 19 minutes into the game. Avery Francis kicked it toward the Pleasant Valley goal, where Emily Banashefski was for the score.

Banashefski scored again in the second half to give Stroudsburg a 2-0 lead.

From there, the Bears played catch-up in the final 28 minutes and finally got a goal from freshman Autumn Castro on a 35-yard free kick.

“It’s one component of our team to make us dangerous,” Strohl said of Castro. “It’s nice to have someone that can take free kicks with consistency. We had a chance again even closer, and the keeper made a good save.”

Castro’s goal tipped off of Stroudsburg goalkeeper Kendall White’s hands for the lone Bears score. Pleasant Valley controlled the game for the majority of the second half and had several chances to tie it late in the contest.

“We definitely battled back,” Strohl said. “We had chances at the end to possibly tie it up. We just couldn’t get the breakthrough tying goal. They played strong all game long. I think we had a little more energy in the second half, a little more urgency, especially the last 20 minutes. I told the girls it was a good effort. I’m not going to fault the effort. It was maybe a little too late. We’ve got to have that energy earlier and more often.”

Pleasant Valley’s season isn’t over yet, as the Bears will face Freedom in the opening round of the District 11 playoffs next Tuesday.

STROHL ON EARLY CORNER KICK ... “I didn’t see it (the ball touching a PV player before it went out of play). I was looking at my bench thinking about possibly subbing because of the time of the game. I know my assistants think they both said they saw it. I think we have it on film. Hopefully, I can see it. There’s nothing you can do whether the refs saw what he saw, whether it was off of us or off them. They called a corner, we’ve got to defend.”

CHANGING THINGS UP… Strohl made minor changes in the game to keep up with Stroudsburg. “We still played relatively the same defensive-shape. I changed who was in certain spots, and I had to change it again in the second half. I think that gave us a little bit of life to try to get the ball in the midfield.”