And, well, it was understandable.

In two regular-season contests against Portville, the Falconer baseball coach had watched his charges grind out 10-6 and 3-2 victories. Added to Carder’s pregame angst was the fact that the third meeting between the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association rivals on a beautiful late afternoon was a Section VI Class C quarterfinal.

“This could be it,” he said. “You’ve got to come out and play.”

As it turned out, the Golden Falcons allowed Carder to breathe easy.

P-J photo by Scott Kindberg Falconer's Liam Sharpe delivers to the plate during Tuesday's quarterfinal against Portville.

Sparked by a nine-run second inning and a five-run third, second-seeded Falconer breezed to a 15-1 five-inning victory over the seventh-seeded Panthers (9-9). The win moves the Golden Falcons (13-4) into the semifinals against No. 3 Randolph (13-5), a 3-1 winner over No. 6 Chautauqua Lake, at 5 p.m. Thursday, back at Meszaros Field.

It’s a postseason journey that Carder is enjoying, especially given the road the program has had to navigate over the last handful of seasons.

“We didn’t win a game for five years,” he said. “It’s been an emotional roller coaster.”

But after a rough bottom of the first inning yesterday — Falconer was retired on three straight strikeouts by Portville’s Aidan DeFazio — the home team was in complete control.

“This was fun to see,” Carder said.

Highlighting the nine-run second inning were two-run singles by Nic Russel, Chase Bianco and Erik Stenstrom, and RBI singles by Griffin Knopp, Gavin Curtis and Colton Rhinehart. That was more than enough for Curtis, the winning pitcher, and reliever Liam Sharpe, who combined on a three-hitter. Falconer padded its lead in the third inning, highlighted by Stenstrom’s two-run single and Bianco’s run-scoring single.

“Honestly, I think we played at about an 8 (on a scale of 1 to 10),” Carder said. “We didn’t make any errors. We made a couple base-running mistakes, but we had timely hits and the effort was there from the first inning on.”

Carder, a 1996 Falconer graduate, said this team reminds him of the squad he played on 30 years ago.

“There are no gaps in the outfield and all our infielders can make plays, so our pitchers don’t have to dominate,” he said. “I’m filling out the lineup sometimes (and I say to myself), ‘This guy is batting eighth?’ and I’m happy about it. Four years ago, he might have been batting second.

“Every year it’s been better and better. I love it. These kids mean the world to me.”

NOTES: Portville’s lone run came in the top of the first inning on Ty Kosinski’s RBI single. … DeFazio, one of three Panthers’ pitchers, took the loss. … Falconer and Randolph split their regular-season meetings. The Cardinals defeated the Golden Falcons 8-7 on April 28 and Falconer prevailed 9-1 on May 18.