It was just one game into the season and Freedom Area girls' soccer coach John Mohrbacher knew offseason work to build teamwork, including a trip to a ropes course, was paying off.

Hosting Neshannock in a season opening section game, Freedom overcame a 2-0 and 3-2 deficit to win, 4-3, in overtime.

"That game was huge because I don't know that a year ago we would have come back from that," Mohrbacher said. "I kind of sensed it right then we had made the step up that I was hoping we could,"

After that win, Freedom reeled off three more, and after six games, they were 5-1 overall and 5-0 in Section 5-AA before last night's match against BNew Brighton. No win was bigger than Monday, when the Bulldogs handed Beaver its first loss, 2-1.

In the off-season, Mohrbacher likes to take his team to Geneva College for a grueling ropes course meant to build teamwork amongst his players.

"Each year it kind of gives us a sense of what we need to work on as a team," Mohrbacher said.

"In the past when things got real challenging we would start pointing fingers. But this year, instead of looking around, we matured and when things get difficult we come together."

Mohrbacher has been at Freedom for all 11 years the school has had a girls' soccer program. After eight years without advancing to the playoffs, the Bulldogs have back-to-back playoff appearances.

The Bulldogs were eliminated in the first round two years ago and last year advanced to the second round. With the way the season has started for Freedom, a trip to the playoffs might become a trend for the former struggling program.

"I appreciate the success more because I know what it's like to fight for so many years to get every win that we could," Mohrbacher said. "I try to convey that to these girls because some of them maybe don't know what its like because they are used to winning. There were times when I didn't know if I could keep doing this."

The program has received a big boost from a new junior high program. Also, Freedom has more players, as this season's roster numbers 25. Mohrbacher can remember years when he had between 12 and 16 players.

"Having people we can go to if there's an injury has made a huge difference," Mohrbacher said. "There were a lot of years we had good players, just not enough of them and that kind of held us back,"

Against Beaver, junior forward Cassie Winterbottom scored the first goal, twenty minutes into the important section matchup. Freedom went up, 2-0, on Christine Handyside's seventh goal of the season, which was set up by a Jen Cantella corner kick.

A late penalty kick prevented Raelene Zajac from posting Freedom's fourth shutout.

Mohrbacher describes Zajac as having quiet confidence.

"Handyside always finds a way to score big goals for us and she is a great leader," Mohrbacher said.

Freedom runs a 4-4-2 formation with a sweeper and stopper on defense. The leader of the defense is senior Alyssa Operchal.

Last year's team that finished second in the section and defeated Monessen in the playoffs only lost one player.

This year's team has six seniors and Freedom has brought up a solid freshman class from the junior high program.

Said Mohrbacher: "It's not a mystery what the biggest strengths of the team are. The unity and maturity of our team is what's keeping us together."