BETHLEHEM — It wasn’t long ago when Pleasant Valley fell victim to Freedom late in the regular season.

Not even two weeks later in the EPC boys soccer quarterfinals on Tuesday, the same story played itself out once again.

The fourth-seeded Patriots struck early and used a suffocating defense to stymie any offensive counterattack the fifth-seeded Bears had, allowing the hometowers to cruise to a 4-1 victory.

“We got our players where we wanted them to get the ball in the middle third of the field, they look up, they just see black (jerseys), and there’s nobody in white really to support,” PV head coach Jonathan Mickens said about his team trying to play the ball through the midfield.

“This is what playoffs are all about at times. You’re going to get a goal… and when you have a lead, they’re going to preserve it, and that’s what (Freedom) did for the majority of the game.”

That first Patriot goal came just less than twelve minutes into the contest. Luca Hagy set the ball on a tee for Caden Grimmer to walk in and launch a shot that deflected off the outstretched Bears’ goalkeeper Cole Clark and into the net.

From that point forward, Freedom was in complete control of the game. Pleasant Valley was tasked with trying to break through a structured and aggressive defense that left players looking for answers.

Its only glimmer of light came from a miscue on the opposing side.

Later in the first half, in an attempt to play the ball back to goalie Ben Rodriguez, the Patriots accidentally redirected the back pass away from Rodriguez and into their own goal.

The tying score was credited to Matthew Slobodzian as the last Bears’ player to possess the ball.

Freedom wasn’t fazed by the mistake and re-took the lead seven minutes later when Kai Achenbrenner fed a centering pass to Grimmer for his second goal of the game.

Despite only trailing 2-1 at halftime, PV was grateful that the deficit wasn’t worse.

The second half is when the mental side of the game began to create problems for the Bears. The overwhelming defensive structure that the Patriots played with left numerous PV players struggling to maintain its standard of play, and coach Mickens noticed it from the sideline.

“A lot of our boys put their heads down and started to play more as an individual when things didn’t go our way,” he said. “Didn’t do the proper defensive assignments, kept the ball for a bit too long, and we just weren’t connecting on the little things. The first few minutes of the game we had an idea of what we wanted to accomplish, but after a while they just started to break us down defensively, and luckily the game didn’t get more out of hand.”

The game may not have turned into a rout, but Freedom did manage to find the twine a couple more times. Nagy got his second assist of the evening, setting up Evan Plasco on the back post, and Creed Sadler potted home a rebound from a shot by Aschenbrenner off a 2-on-1 rush.

Patriots’ head coach Farid Bayramli, who had implemented his team’s suffocating style of defense, had not seen a better defensive effort from his players before Tuesday’s playoff match.

“This is one of the best games (this) whole season,” he said. “That was a really, really beautiful game today. I have two excellent players, Liam (Curtin) and Logan (Espinal).

“They’re playing double pivot, and there’s no player that’s going through the center defensive mid. That’s why you don’t see a lot of transitioning for the opposite team because we don’t give them a gap to move up.”

For the Bears, the team may have gone up against a brick wall in the conference playoffs, but coach Mickens is hopeful that his players take key lessons from the game that will transition into district playoffs.

“I hope they learned that no matter what the state of the game is, they have to do everything together as a team,” he said. “We cannot resolve to individualism where we’re breaking down defensively. We cannot not trust each other just because they misplaced one pass or missed one assignment. We have to keep on playing as a group.”

SAME TEAMS, SAME STORY … Pleasant Valley’s previous matchup against Freedom was at home on Oct. 8, where the Patriots earned a 3-0 shutout.

PLENTY OF TIME … The Bears have over a week to practice and prepare for the District 11 4A playoffs, which begins on Wednesday, Oct. 28.

NEXT TEAM UP … Freedom advances to the EPC semifinals, hosted at J. Birney Crum Stadium on Thursday, where it will take on top-seeded Emmaus.

Freedom 4, Pleasant Valley 1

Pleasant Valley 1 0 - 1

Freedom 2 2 - 4

Goals: Pleasant Valley - Matthew Slobodzian 1; Freedom - Caden Grimmer 2, Evan Plasco 1, Creed Sadler 1; Assists: Pleasant Valley - None; Freedom - Luca Nagy 2, Kai Aschenbrenner 2; Saves: Pleasant Valley - Cole Clark 10; Freedom - Ben Rodriguez 1; Shots: Pleasant Valley 2; Freedom 18; Corners: Pleasant Valley 1; Freedom 7.

Records: Pleasant Valley (11-5-3); Freedom (15-1-3).