Northampton’s boys’ soccer team is hoping the third time will be the proverbial charm.

The fourth-seeded Konkrete Kids opened the District 11 Class 4A playoff Wednesday night, after Press deadlines, on their home turf as they hosted fifth–seeded Pleasant Valley. The teams aren’t strangers to each other as they met in the East Penn Conference (EPC) playoffs last week with Pleasant Valley posting a 1-0 overtime victory.

During the regular season, the Kids handled Pleasant Valley, 5-2. But it wasn’t the case in the postseason, as it was a hard-fought game throughout. Northampton will enter the contest with a 15-4 record, while Pleasant Valley has a 14-4-2 mark.

After their victory over the Kids, Pleasant Valley lost to league runner-up Parkland, 1-0, in the semifinals.

Kids’ head coach Chris Bastidas noted the play of Brody Eisenhart, Chase Nederostek, Aaron Gutkowski, Sebastian Mello, and goalie Ryan Nahf in the recent Pleasant Valley loss.

The Kids have been paced by the trio of Nederostek, Eisenhart, and Mello. Nederostek has a team-high 21 goals along with eight assists, Eisenhart has 18 goals and 11 assists, and Mello has 14 goals and 20 assists. Nahf has 44 saves.

Knowing each other very well, Bastidas didn’t expect any major surprises Wednesday night. The Kids advanced to the district semifinals last year until they were eliminated by Freedom, 5-3. They downed Allen, 2-1, in last year’s opening round.

“Now that we have played them twice there won’t be any secrets in how both teams want to play,” noted Bastidas. “We know they are good and they have great players at multiple positions. They are a well-coached team. We believe if we stick to our game plan and play simply that we will have a good chance to win.”

Pleasant Valley head coach Issac Blagogee also expects more of the same.

“We had three guys back the first time we met them,” said Blagogee. “They are a very good team and can score easily. We have to play another tight game against hem and try to find a way to get a couple of balls in the net.”