NORTHAMPTON — It’s no secret who Pleasant Valley wants to have the ball in crucial situations.

And on Thursday in the semifinal round of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference playoffs, the Bears certainly faced a crucial situation.

Trailing by three late in the third quarter against fourth-seeded Liberty, Rylee Rath showed why she’s the best player in the league.

The senior standout, who earlier in the contest broke the school’s career records for goals and points, scored twice and assisted on two other tallies to force a tie heading into the final period.

Then in the final frame, she continued her dominance on draw controls to keep the top-seeded Bears in possession and netted a key score with 7:47 remaining to put her team ahead by two goals.

Her play down the stretch, along with a pair of scores from Brielle Halamar during that final period, allowed PV to pull out a 14-11 victory and earn a berth in Tuesday’s championship game against Nazareth.

“She shines bright when the lights are bright,” said Pleasant Valley head coach Hanna Doerner. “She does what she needs to do. She doesn’t like to lose, whether it’s lacrosse, on a test, or in a backyard game.

“The kid doesn’t like to lose, so she’s willing to do what she needs to, and it helped us tonight come out on top.”

Down 10-7 after the Hurricanes’ Julianna Zumas opened the second half with a goal off a feed from Christina Bozakis, the Bears were in jeopardy of being upset and seeing their chance at a fifth straight EPC title slip away.

But Rath helped will her team from behind for the comeback win.

She scored off one of her patented rushes to the net, working past a defender, and later delivered a perfect pass to set up Peyton Knecht to pull PV within one at 10-9.

Ellis Corr gave Liberty its two-goal lead back again with a goal off the free position, but Rath countered on her free position opportunity and assisted on another Knecht tally to erase the deficit and tie the score.

“Throughout most of the game, I know I need to be who I am,” said Rath, who finished the contest with six goals and five assists. “Once we were down a couple goals, I was like alright, this is where I need to be the captain for this team ... and be like this is my time to shine and do what I could for the team.

“We got down a couple goals, but we were like, ‘We’re good, we’re good.’ We stayed down, though, and then we were like we need to kick it in. We weren’t freaking out. We knew what we needed to do ... We can come back from anything. I wasn’t nervous. I knew we could come back. I was going out on the field and I was like, ‘We’re not losing, we’re fine.’”

Halamar scored off the free position less than two minutes into the fourth quarter to put PV on top 12-11 — its first lead since being up 6-5 early in the second period. Rath, after one of her many draw control wins, then patiently waited on offense until she found an opening and used a burst of speed to get into a prime scoring position and converted.

From there, the Bears gained possession and milked the clock. They ran off six minutes until Liberty gained possession again, but the Hurricanes quickly turned the ball over. Halamar added an insurance tally with 32 seconds left to seal the victory.

“It’s never a fun way to do it,” said Doerner of holding the ball. “I’m not a fan of that, but sometimes you have do what you have to do to come away with a win.

“It’s the three Cs — calm, cool and collected,” she added about keeping her team focused despite trailing. “Sometimes you just have to remind them to take a deep breath and get back to the basics. And that’s kind of what it was today. We were forgetting some of the simple things, so it was just a little quick reminder to get back to that.”

Earlier, Pleasant Valley jumped out to a 6-3 advantage behind three early scores from Rath and two from Halamar. But the Hurricanes used a huge 6-2 second period — which included two goals from both Zumas and Lily Medaska — to take a 9-7 halftime advantage.

“They came out with their hair on fire,” said Doerner. “They wanted to beat us. Everybody wants to beat us ... Liberty’s goalie (Erika Broesicke) is fantastic. She played lights out. She had a million saves on us. It’s difficult to shoot when the goalie is that good. We just tried to make some adjustments and we did what we needed to do.”

RECORD NUMBERS ... Rath reached 401 career goals and 545 career points in the opening quarter to pass Devon Bush for the school’s all-time leader in both categories.

STICK-Y SITUATION ... The stick of PV goalie Emilynn Stipeck broke during warm-ups, and she was forced to use the stick of the team’s back-up netminder. “That’s not easy on the mental,” said Doerner. “That was a little challenging back there, but the rest of the girls really brought her up.”

SUPER SUB ... The Bears had a number of players go down during the course of the game, but the bench stepped up and contributed. “I’m very grateful for my kiddos on the bench,” said Doerner. “My players on the bench are dressed and ready to go. Natalie Hayes did a great job for us tonight. Half the time I didn’t know if I was throwing her out on offense or defense but she knew where to be, so a big shout out to her tonight.

Liberty 3 6 2 0 - 11

Pleasant Valley 5 2 4 3 - 14

Goals: Liberty - Julianna Zumas 4, Lily Medaska 3, Ellis Corr 3, Christina Bozakis 1; Pleasant Valley - Rylee Rath 6, Brielle Halamar 4, Peyton Knecht 4; Assists: Liberty - Christina Bozakis 4; Pleasant Valley - Rylee Rath 5, Peyton Knecht 1; Saves: Liberty - Erika Broesicke 9; Pleasant Valley - Emilynn Stipeck 2.

Records: Liberty (10-9); Pleasant Valley (17-1).