The third-seeded Freedom Patriots opened play in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference boys soccer tournament with a 3-0 victory over sixth-seeded Pleasant Valley on Oct. 16 at Freedom.

“We’re taking some stuff from the regular season into the postseason, but it’s a new mentality that we have,” said Freedom senior Corey James. “We’re forgetting about the losses from during the season. They don’t mean anything for postseason. We’re in with all these teams, and I know we can compete with them, so we should be able to bring it home.”

James had the first assist of the match on a goal by Ryan Freeman-Nield in the 35th minute.

“I made a vertical run past the fullback, and then I cut it down the line and kept on going and played the ball in,” James said. “It was almost out, to be honest.”

Freeman-Nield’s goal allowed the Patriots to take a 1-0 lead over the Bears into halftime.

Pouring rain took over the second half but not the Patriots’ offense as Michael Deluhery had a clear shot on goal and easily found the back of the net in the 60th minute.

Deluhery then had an assist on a goal by Dominik Roszkawski in the 63rd minute.

“I thought we were really composed,” said Freedom coach Tyler Nolan. “Something we’ve been focusing on is a combination of urgency and drive and being on the front foot but then also doing it intelligently. I thought we were rather good, especially in the second half, in terms of analyzing what they were doing against us and seeing what solutions we could find. Two of the goals we scored were clipped balls over the top, or a little driving at the center backs and making them step to them playing the ball through.”

Freedom will take on second-seeded Parkland in a semifinal, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 18 at Pleasant Valley.

“I told them, we play until we lose, and I think that refocused them and got them back to this ultra super competitive game,” Nolan said. “Depending on who we play and what we see from the boys, we adapt. We changed a little bit based off how they were playing us, and whoever we play Wednesday will be something that we might look at and see if it’s going to be something we adapt or if we can continue to do the same thing.”