A year ago, the Palmerton girls soccer team managed to win just three league games and had nowhere to go but up.

Enter Nate Petrosky, who took over as head coach of the team and all of a sudden things turned around, quicker than expected, and they won 12 of 18 games and never lost or trailed at home during the regular season.The Lady Bombers earned the No. 4 seed for the District 11 Class A tournament and got to host No. 4 Minersville (11-4-3) in the quarterfinal round of the District 11 Class A Tournament on Thursday.Despite falling behind early, Palmerton took a one goal lead, but wound up playing more on the defensive in the second half.The end result was a 3-2 loss in overtime to the Battlin' Miners., ending their season.Minersville, the No. 5 seed, will now meet No. 1 seed Pine Grove in the semifinals on Monday.Junior Rachel Sterner managed to find the back of the goal with 4:04 left in the first overtime to lift her team to the win.It was her second goal of the night."The (the Lady Bombers) had an amazing year," said Petrosky afterwards. "To see them this upset after a game shows you the kind of year we had and the changes in the program."They were used to losing and not believing in themselves. To see these girls so upset tells you that they believe. They believe they can beat anybody. Today it didn't happen, but we rebuild, regroup and get ready for next year.The Bombers seemed to play a little tentative at the start and Minersville took advantage when Sterner scored off a corner in the first 10 minutes giving her team a 1-0 lead.Palmerton wound up tying the game as leading scorer Monica Wood slammed a direct kick past Minersville freshman goalie Magdelynn Wigoda with 21:20 still left in the first half making it 1-1.With 10:13 remaining until intermission, it was Wood again on another direct kick from the left side that found its way into the crease giving the Bombers a 2-1 lead that took them until halftime.The Miners, with the wind to their backs, took advantage to be the aggressor in the second half and kept the pressure on the Bombers.Finally, with 15:02 left in regulation, Grace Lescavage scored a goal on a booming kick for Minersville to tie the score at 2-2.Despite finishing with 14 shots on goal, the Bombers just couldn't get that winning goal and the season came to an end.The only time the Lady Bombers ever reached the District 11 playoffs before was in the 2004-05 season where they went on to defeated Lehigh Valley Christian, but then lost to Northwestern Lehigh."We doubled our win total this year so this is a whole new territory for them and I hope they come back hungry and more fired up and focused for next year," said Petrosky. "The second half was tough as we had to play into the win and they came out and put pressure on us and tied it up. They pulled it off and deserved to win."Minersville finished the game with 13 shots on goal and Wigoda managed nine saves. Palmerton goalie Julia Paulhino had eight saves.