It’s said it takes a village to raise a person, and that’s exactly what the Pleasant Valley girls lacrosse program has done for its superstar athlete.

In an EPC contest against Freedom on Thursday, Bears’ senior Rylee Rath reached a remarkable accomplishment of 500 points in her high school career with eight goals and an assist to help her squad take down the Patriots 16-7.

While the individual achievement certainly requires execution on Rath’s behalf, she sees it as more of a byproduct of being a part of a successful organization with great coaching from the time her career began.

“This is Hanna’s (Doerner) first year as our head coach, but she’s been with us since my freshman year,” Rath said. “Then having coach Toni (Bush) these past couple of years, they’ve just been great coaches. They know exactly how to get us to go and get us scoring. I wouldn’t have gotten to 500 without them.”

Much like she typically does in most games, Rath made an immediate impact offensively against Freedom, scoring the contest’s first two goals in just over two minutes. Her teammates followed her lead with another four tallies, including two from Brielle Halamar, and led 6-2 after one.

After the Patriots opened the second quarter with a goal from Jenelle Karabinas, Halamar responded just 21 seconds later, kickstarting the first of four more PV goals to extend its lead to 10-7 at the half.

Following a longer halftime break, the Bears began the second half on their heels as Freedom pressed hard and refused to throw in the towel. Karee Vandever potted two goals in just over a minute as part of a four-goal third quarter, cutting the PV lead to 10-7 after three.

In danger of losing the lead, coach Doerner used a much-needed timeout late in the third to get her squad back on track.

“Freedom came out really strong after halftime,” she said. “We just have to remember that teams aren’t just going to go away. We’ve got to call a timeout every now and then, get the team back on their feet, and just kept rolling after that.”

Sure enough, it was Rath who got the Bear Train rolling again in the fourth. Already having four of the seven points she needed to reach her milestone, all Rath did was wire home another five goals as part of a six-goal onslaught from PV with her 500th point coming from the free position with 4:51 remaining.

While the Bears had taken care of business with the 16-7 final score, the evening clearly belonged to Rath in celebration of not just a number, but also a person who has made noticeable impacts on both coaches and teammates.

“I love playing side-by-side with her,” teammate Halamar said, who finished with four goals and three assists. “She teaches me so much, and being able to be a part of that means so much to me. She’s obviously a great lacrosse player, but she can coach younger people and she sets me up for success.”

“She’s a fantastic athlete, but even a better human,” coach Doerner said. “She’s always trying to make her teammates better. She’s got a different kind of mindset (and) a different kind of work ethic that not a lot of kids have. A lot of kids want to imitate her work ethic to make sure that they can do something to be somewhere along the lines of Rylee Rath.

“She’s made a name for herself in the Lehigh Valley, and I credit that to all the work she’s done outside of just the regular season. She’s got her stick in her hand every month of the year, and it shows.”

Having that kind of importance to a team’s success can sometimes be overwhelming to a student. However, Rath has used it as motivation to keep performing at a high level, and serve as an example for the program going forward.

“It’s a great thing knowing that if I work hard, people will follow with me knowing that I can kind of bring that demeanor to the team,” Rath said. “It’s a good type of pressure it puts on me knowing that I have to work hard to bring it for the rest of the team.”

FUTURE PLANS ... The senior phenom will be taking her skills to Northwestern University following the conclusion of this season. Until then, Rath says there’s still business left to be done for her current school.

“(I’m just) taking every game and playing as hard as I can,” Rath said. “There’s not another year of this, so (I’m) leaving it out on the field and just trying to get as far as we can this year.”

BACK AT IT ... PV faces Boyertown on Saturday.

Freedom 2 1 4 0 - 7

Pleasant Valley 6 4 0 6 - 16

Goals: Freedom - Carter 2, Vandever 2, Karabinas 2, Avitabile 1; Pleasant Valley - Rath 8, Halamar 4, Kutzler 2, VanDerheyden 1, Knecht 1; Assists: Freedom - Vandever 3, Mannino 1; Pleasant Valley - Knecht 3, Halamar 1, Rath 1, VanDerheyden 1; Saves: Freedom - Sek 6; Pleasant Valley - Borger 4.

Records: Freedom (7-6); Pleasant Valley (11-1).