NORTHAMPTON — Pleasant Valley’s girls lacrosse team is back in the District 11 Class 3A final.

But how the Bears got there was rather interesting.

After racing out to a huge lead early against Emmaus Monday evening in their semifinal matchup — something that wasn’t surprising — PV had to fend off a furious Green Hornet rally.

The Bears lost momentum, one of their top players and even a little composure before eventually regrouping to earn a 15-8 victory and a berth in Wednesday’s championship game.

“Tonight’s game was a lesson for all of us on not taking anything for granted,” said Pleasant Valley head coach Toni Bush. “And this is what we practice for, situations like this. We’ll have a talk on the bus about how well they did, how they handled the adversity tonight ... You never know what’s going to happen in a game, and you have to be prepared.”

The top-seeded Bears built an 11-1 advantage midway through the second quarter with Rylee Rath accounting for five of those tallies, and led 12-3 at halftime.

Emmaus, however, wasn’t about to concede. The Hornets, who got crushed 19-1 by PV in the EPC finals, scored four unanswered goals — two by Brooke Peterson — in the third to pull within 12-7. To make things worse for Bush and her team, Rath picked up her second yellow card of the evening at the end of the period on what was deemed a dangerous shot. That forced her to have to sit out the rest of the game.

Abby DiComes then scored off the free position early in the fourth for Emmaus to make it 12-8.

With momentum gone, its lead dwindling, and one of its best players on the bench, PV did something it rarely does — it held the ball.

The Bears gained possession and ran off nearly eight minutes on the clock before getting back into their offense.

The strategy worked, as fourth-seeded Emmaus couldn’t gain control and Devon Bush pumped in two late goals to secure the win.

“We’ve practiced being up, we’ve practiced being down,” said Coach Bush. “We’ve practiced time on the clock left. You have to practice those things, otherwise you’re going to freak out if it happens during the game. So yes, we have practiced it (killing the clock), but not necessarily for a whole quarter.

“It’s just that the girls were starting to get a little anxious, which is why we slowed the ball down. Losing Rylee is big, she’s one of our top players, but we had confidence the team would step up. They just needed some time to get composed before we released full play again. So we left them hold the ball until they felt a little bit more calm, and then we were fine.”

With Rath out, Devon Bush stepped up and increased her leadership role by being a calming influence.

And while she did manage the two late tallies, it was the intangibles that don’t show up on the stat sheet that proved to be key.

“I knew that I had to kind of take over me and Rylee’s role in a sense, but everyone had to step up their game in that scenario,” said Devon, who finished with six goals and two assists. “But I think working together, and just communicating ... I was communicating with all the girls a lot on where to go, where to move, and everything like that.

“With Rylee being out the whole fourth quarter, that set up something we haven’t seen all season. But that will really help us in the future with situations where we might not have Rylee or me or Morgan (Ryals), or one of our top scorers out there.”

To Coach Bush, the game also proved an important point.

“I think tonight’s biggest lesson is our team is not one player,” she said. “Our team is not two players. Our team can perform because they’re a team. And that’s the true measure of a program is you have a full team, rather than just one or two superstars. So I think that tonight showed that they played with grace, composure. And if we can do that Wednesday, paired with their skills, then I’m confident.”

MILESTONE ... Rath reached 300 career goals in the first quarter when she tallied for the third time. The score came off the free position.

TITLE GAME ... Pleasant Valley will face Nazareth in Wednesday’s final at Lehigh University. The Blue Eagles upset Easton by an 11-10 score in Monday’s other semifinal contest.

STAT CHECK ... Bush and Rath both finished with six goals, while Brielle Halamar — a freshman — accounted for her team’s other three goals. DiComes topped Emmaus with two goals and three assists.

Emmaus 1 2 4 1 - 8

Pleasant Valley 8 4 0 3 - 15

Goals: Emmaus - DiComes 2, Gross 2, Peterson 2, Guzick 2; Pleasant Valley - Bush 6, R. Rath 6, Halamar 3; Assists: Emmaus - DiComes 3, Poll 1; Pleasant Valley - Bush 2, R. Rath 1, Miller 1, A. Rath 1, Kutzler 1; Saves: Emmaus - O’Neill 6; Pleasant Valley - Borger 5.

Records: Emmaus (12-9); Pleasant Valley (20-2).