Had Breeana Riggs not bent a free kick into the net with 11 seconds left Tuesday, Port Neches-Groves would have had to survive at least another 20 minutes of soccer with Richmond Foster.

The Indians had already dealt with 79 minutes, 49 seconds of nerve madness. Just ask senior Izzy Volk.

“I’m really bad about getting into my own head,” Volk said. “But, I’ve been overcoming that lately because my team has been helping me move along.”

Then, Riggs made maybe the shot of her high school career — and her 13th goal of the season.

“Not like in that kind of situation,” Riggs said, had she bent such a big goal, the only score in the 5A Region III area round game at Barbers Hill. “I made a free kick before, but not in that kind of pressure situation.”

On the other side of the Region III bracket, Nederland (19-1-5) hasn’t quite faced such a postseason pressure cooker just yet.

“We know every team in the playoffs has worked hard to get there,” senior Destyn Miguez said. “We know they’re good competition. “Every game, we’re going to go in not too cocky, but confident in what we have and what we can do.”

The Bulldogs have outscored Santa Fe and Manvel by a combined 9-0 heading into Friday’s quarterfinal against Friendswood at Stallworth Stadium in Baytown, the offensive production not much of a secret.

“We struggled early in the season to find the back of the net, and we were trying new things,” Nederland coach Aaron Tomplait said. “Since spring break, we came out with great focus, and it’s shown in games.”

Nederland’s defense has been noticeable as well. The Bulldogs have posted shutouts in the last three games, but they will have a formidable test from a Friendswood team that’s outscored Memorial and Angleton by a combined 16-0.

“We just started this defensive line last year, and our chemistry has gotten really strong,” senior Phoebe Short said, mentioning classmates Hailey Dugas and Abby Gray on the defensive line. “Us shutting out our biggest-competition teams in district and preseason shows we can compete with these higher teams.”

PNG (18-5-5) beat Crosby 2-0 in the bi-district round before the win over Foster and has held the opposition scoreless in four of the past five games, giving up only a goal to Vidor in the March 22 regular-season finale.

“What is says is that our defense is strong, no matter if we’re scoring or not,” Indians coach Aimee Bates said. “We stay focused on minimizing the amount of shots they have. It also means they focus on not giving up. …”

Senior Mia Delgadillo, who will play her fourth game on a torn ACL, said the playoffs are about how much heart each team gives.

“I don’t think we played the most technical game last game, but we fought until the end, and as you can see, [11] seconds left, we got our goal,” she said.

Should Nederland and PNG each win two more games, they would meet for the third time this season in the regional final. Each team has beaten the other on the road this year.

That potential match is still more than a week away. For now, the Bulldogs and Indians are just enjoying the playoff journey.

“I think it’s really exciting,” Gray said. “We’ve worked our butts off, like all season, to get to this point.”

“No matter what, we have the heart,” PNG senior Ariel Muller said. “We all know we want it just as much as the person next to us.”

I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews