Pleasant Valley lacrosse coach Toni Bush should send Easton coach Michelle Mihalko a thank you note for the nice gift of a timeout that Bush received courtesy of her counterpart.

Mihalko called a timeout with 12:46 left in regulation and it was perfect timing for Bush, who used the opportunity to rally her team.

The result was three unanswered goals that took the Bears from a two-goal deficit to a one-goal lead and an eventual 14-12 win on Monday in the semifinal round of the District 11 playoffs against Easton.

“Yeah, I should say ‘thank you’ for that,” said Bush of the timely break in the action, which she put to good use and sent a message to her players.

“I told them to stop playing scared, to start playing your game,” recalled Bush about her late-game message. “I said get out there, take care of the ball, and show some movement on offense.”

While Toni Bush provided the motivational message for the Bears, her daughters played a big in making sure it produced a victory,

Senior Alex Bush scored seven goals, including the go-ahead tally with 2:10 left to play in the game. Her younger sister - freshman Devon Bush - scored two goals in the win.

“I honestly think it’s just the more our team has played together, the better we have become as a team overall. It’s exciting to be able to come this far,” said Alex Bush. “I think the success today was draw possession, because if we weren’t winning draws, the score would be completely different.”

Winning draws has become a specialty for Pleasant Valley, which dominated the draws by a 13-8 advantage when it defeated top-seed Emmaus in the EPC championship last week. Pleasant Valley was not quite as dominating against the Rovers, but still had a distinct advantage in draws.

Senior Brielle McInaw finished the night with four goals, with the final two proving to be especially important.

After Alex Bush scored her first two goals within three minutes of each other, McInaw got her first of the night to put the Bears up 3-1. McInaw’s next goal came in the second half and brought Pleasant Valley within a goal at 9-8 with 15:51 left in the game.

Later, McInaw would be the one to put Pleasant Valley up 12-11 when she beat Easton goalie Olivia Heryla with just 4:44 left in the game. From there, Easton came back to tie the game a minute later, but Alex Bush picked up her seventh goal of the game with 2:10 remaining.

The Bears (16-5) looked to close out the game, but Easton came up with a steal and took a quick timeout with just :42 left to play. When play resumed, the Rovers failed to take advantage, and McInaw raced toward the goal to wind up being the one to officially end the season for last year’s district champions when she scored with just :16.8 left to play.

“Even when we went ahead late in the game, we knew it would still be a hard game the rest of the way,” said McInaw. “We never stopped trying our hardest and didn’t let up at all.”

Sophomore Riley Green had a key goal during the back-and-forth game when she put Pleasant Valley up 11-10 with just over nine minutes left. Another sophomore, Emily Butler, led the team with three assists on the night, while senior goalie Amanda Hayes made five saves for the Bears.

Jocelyn Morgan led Easton (14-6) with five goals and an assist, while Reese Krieger tallied four Red Rover goals.

FAMILY TRADITION ... It was Toni Bush who started the youth lacrosse program at Pleasant Valley when Alex was just 5 years old. Now, the team has won its first EPC championship, and will make its first appearance in the district finals with Toni Bush coaching, Alex as a senior and Devon as a freshman. Dad was not going to be left out, so he serves as the scorekeeper for the team with a front row seat for all the action.

REMATCH ... Pleasant Valley was the third seed in the EPC playoffs and knocked off both second-seeded Easton by a 14-11 score in the semis, and then downed Emmaus, who came in as the top seed in an 11-9 championship game. On Monday night, Emmaus (18-3) pounded rival Parkland 21-4 to set up the rematch with the Bears for the District 11 championship Wednesday at Lehigh University. While the Bears are going for their first district title, Emmaus won its first and only championship in 2011.

BEARS READY ... A key for Pleasant Valley against Emmaus will be to adjust to the backer zone that it uses, which keeps a lot of teams off balance. “We know what we have to do; it’s just a matter of executing,” said Toni Bush.