Freedom’s boys’ soccer team won its East Penn Conference quarterfinal playoff game 2-0 against Pleasant Valley on Saturday night at Freedom High School.

“We played them in summer league, so we kind of knew some of the players they had. We knew they had 11 wins going in, so we knew they were a solid team,” said Freedom defender Andrew Youwakim, who scored the Patriots’ second goal on a header with 16:27 left in the game. “ It was by the penalty spot and I had to adjust a little bit and just put my head on it and it went behind the keeper.”

Wes Young had the assist from a corner kick, and later in the game, came close to scoring twice.

“It was just lots of focus, trying to shoot the ball in and not hit it over the goal, [and on defense] you just have to be patient to not step in and get beat,” Young said.

Freedom competed as the number four seed against the fifth-seeded Pleasant Valley.

“I think we scrapped with them for a long time and the two they got, one was just a strength and speed thing and the second one was a free header. Other than that I’m happy with the way we played. It’s just that they’re a very good team,” said Pleasant Valley coach Chris Pachuta.

The first half provided no scoring for either side, so the Bears made a couple of adjustments at halftime, while the Patriots stuck with their game plan.

“We tried to play a little bit more over the top, try to see if we could get behind their backs, tried to make a couple almost design changes here and there,” Pachuta said.

“Defensively, everything else was staying the same. We were happy with where we were at. From that point, we were going to keep pushing and look for that one chance and one goal.”

At the 34:06 mark, however, Freedom forward Brad Turocy scored on an assist by center mid Will Tichy. Turocy had made several attempts in the first half, one of which was cleared out by Pleasant Valley defender Collin Stivala.

“Pleasant Valley is a great team, but they just couldn’t seem to get anything going forward. Our defense locked them down,” said Patriot goalie Derek Bast.

The Patriots played in the semifinal against Parkland on Tuesday night, past Press deadlines.

“We’re going to love another game with them,” Youwakim said. “Last game, we just had one defensive mistake and they capitalized. It was 1-0. I’m really excited to get to play them again.”

In other conference soccer playoff games, Freedom’s girls lost to Easton 3-1 on Saturday at Easton. Haley Gschrey scored for the Patriots.

Liberty’s boys also lost to East Stroudsburg South 3-2.