Derek Strohl knew he could rely heavily upon his defense in his first season with the Pleasant Valley girls’ soccer team.

Over the last few days, Strohl has watched his defensive front come up big in the Bears’ first two games in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference playoffs.

The Bears followed Saturday’s upset of No. 2 Easton with yet another upset Tuesday night in the semifinals. This time, the locals didn’t need penalty kicks to get past the quarterfinals as the Bears got it done with a goal in regulation and scored a 1-0 victory over high-powered, No. 3 seeded Whitehall.

With the win, the Bears are one step closer to showing defense wins championships as they earned a berth in Thursday night’s conference championship with top seed Parkland.

“I knew at the beginning of the season we would have a strong defense and it showed tonight,” Strohl said. “It showed against Easton. It’s been there throughout the entire season, but it was just a matter of can we get the timely scoring when we needed it and tonight we got it.”

Nearly four minutes after a goal was disallowed, Erin Sharpe refused to let that damper PV’s hopes. Instead, the senior midfielder gave her Bears that timely goal they needed.

In a play which developed off a corner, Jamie Masullo sent the ball across to the Whitehall net, but a Zephyr defender headed the ball in attempt to clear it.

Sharpe, who admitted to her coach she decided to stay back rather than attack the net, made the right choice as the ball came in her direction.

With little hesitation, Sharpe took in the ball and fired it to the back left end of the Zephyrs’ net for what turned out the game’s lone goal.

“The whole game we just wanted to get it done early,” said Sharpe, who scored with 30:29 left in the second half. “It took some time, but the ball was just there so I finished it off.

“Once I scored, we kept it up, just kept it up strong on the attack. Our defense just worked really hard and we got the “W” by doing so.”

The Bears’ defense came up big on the night.

Regardless of the Bears holding a 12-11 edge in shots, keepers, Renee Milos and Mikaela Miller, who split time again, got their hands on the ball and the defensive backs were able to clear the ball.

“Both teams got a few good looks,” Strohl said. “The defensive mentality was don’t give them clean shots. It was just a collective defensive effort.

The Zephs defeated Pleasant Valley 3-0 earlier in the season. After beating Liberty 3-0 to open the EPC playoffs, Whitehall wasn’t able to continue their momentum against the Bears.

OF BEEN ... With 34:35 left in the second half, Masullo took a direct kick for PV. It deflected off the hands of the Zephyrs’ keeper and it looked as if the Bears’ Abby Leach poked it in to score what apparently looked like her team’s first goal. The back net even rippled as if the ball had caused the action. However, the referees begged to differ and called it a no goal.

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY COACH ... Derek Strohl received one of the best gifts any coach, yet alone a first-year coach, would want on his birthday - the right to play for a conference championship. Not only did the Bears’ Student Section sing Happy Birthday prior to the start of the game, his victorious Lady Bears sang it again in the post-game huddle.

FINAL STAGE SET ... Bears advance straight into Thursday night’s showdown with No. 1 seed Parkland, who was a 1-0 victor over No. 5 seed Nazareth, for the rights to stake claim to the second Eastern Pennsylvania Conference girls’ soccer championship. “It’s going to take our best game yet,” Strohl said. “We’re playing really well at the right time these last two weeks. It’s going to take our best effort yet. Parkland is just at a whole another level. So, we’re going to have to bring our “A” game.”