The Freedom Patriots began their quest for a district championship with a 4-1 victory over Pleasant Valley in a District XI Class 4A quarterfinal match on Saturday at Freedom.

“I feel great, whoever we play next,” said Patriot defender Vincenzo Rosete. “Ready for the challenge.”

Freedom struck first with a goal by Sebastian Garces on an assist by Daniel Ramirez with 11:10 remaining in the first half. Less than a minute later, the Pates went up, 2-0, when Peter Tichy connected on a penalty kick.

“Me and PJ and Daniel have been playing for awhile so we know what to do with each other on and off the ball,” said Garces. “My players know where I’m at.”

Two more goals were scored shortly before halftime; one by Garces to the right corner, and one by Pleasant Valley’s Onious George on an assist by Matt Erhardt.

“I said to my guys at half, I do think if that goal would’ve been scored five to seven minutes earlier, I think momentum could’ve changed where we maybe could’ve gotten another one in before half,” said Pleasant Valley coach Alex Wunder. “It just happened too late.”

Garces finished the match with a hat trick, scoring his third goal on an assist by Ramirez with 29:11 remaining in the second half.

“We played them the past four years, so we weren’t going to back down. We wanted to respect how good we thought they might be, and we didn’t want to underestimate them. We came in very serious today,” said Ramirez. “We started the game a bit slow, but then we started moving along and then everyone else started playing a lot better.”

Pleasant Valley goalie Michael Meyers saved what could have been another Patriot goal, jumping just high enough to slap the ball away late in the second half.

“The second round, we can start pushing from the very beginning and once we do that, I think we can get an early lead or something like that,” said Garces.

Freedom will take on Emmaus this Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Emmaus.

We’re going in strong,” said Ramirez, “very hopeful. We want to go all the way to the end.”