Freedom’s 1-0 victory over Pleasant Valley in the District XI Class 4A boys’ soccer semifinal on Oct. 30 guaranteed the Patriots a place in the PIAA State tournament, but the district final against Emmaus would be next in the Pates’ quest for more gold.

“This is the greatest,” said Freedom’s Bradley Turocy, who scored the game’s only goal with 19:57 left in the game. “We all wanted the same thing. We didn’t care about our stats. We didn’t want anyone to score as many goals as the other person. We just wanted to play our positions, respect each other, help each other out. We’ve played with each other forever, so we wanted to do it for each other and get to something that we really deserve.”

Scoreless at halftime, Pleasant Valley had been outplaying Freedom in shots and corners in the first half, and a shot by Mirza Sabovic hit the left post.

“He got around one of our defenders,” said Freedom goalie Derek Bast, who had eight saves. “I’m pretty sure I got a shoulder on it and off the post, and thankfully it went wide.”

A shot by Pleasant Valley’s Zion Moore also went wide in the first half.

“To be honest, I was happy with the way we played the first half, and I honestly think we dominated that first half if you look at the shots, and you look at the corner kicks, we outshot them, had more corners, did everything right,” said Wunder. “We just couldn’t put it in the back of the net. We had one go off the post. Just unlucky.”

The Patriots took notice and regrouped at halftime.

“We didn’t really control the midfield,” Turocy said. “We were losing a lot of 50-50’s, but as soon as we got our 50-50 balls back, the game was completely ours again.”

Turocy made his move halfway through the second half.

“I tried to make a run across the box but it kind of deflected to me and then I ran across the top of the box and I just let it rip with my left foot. Next thing I knew, the net was shaking, and everyone was going crazy,” he said.

Defensively, the Patriots locked down the Bears in the second half, preventing a game-tying Pleasant Valley goal in the final 42 seconds.

“Down to the last minute, it was very nerve wracking, but I heard Austin [Hoffert] shielding Zion and he told me to come out so I just came out and did my best to control the ball,” Bast said. “We’ve done a great job with our defensive formation, controlling the end of the game and not letting the other team score and get back in the game.

“We’ve been preaching states, not stats, all season long and here we are, going to states next week and playing for another championship on Thursday.”