Mark Versuk has coached plenty of games in his lifetime.

He served 14 years as an assistant football coach at Pleasant Valley and a combined 13 years at Glen Mills and Pleasant Valley as an assistant baseball coach.But until last Friday night, Versuk had never been a varsity head coach.He's now an undefeated varsity head coach.Versuk achieved that status after guiding Pleasant Valley to a 43-25 season-opening victory over Nazareth."I really wasn't more nervous Friday night than I was for any game when I was an assistant," said Versuk. "I've coached lots of games in my career, including playoff games and even championship games in football and baseball, so even though I had never been the head coach before, I just tried to treat this as any other game."I knew the kids had worked hard, and I was confident we were prepared. So I was actually pretty relaxed before the game."Versuk said the thing he was most happy about wasn't getting his first victory as head coach, but rather, getting a victory in the opening game of the season."It had been a while since we had won our opener (2007)," he said. "We've had some successful seasons during that time, but we've played some really good teams in recent openers and haven't been able to get wins."I didn't really talk to the kids about reversing the recent season-opening losses, but I think the upper classmen were aware that it had been a while."When Versuk talks about recent success, he's right.The Bears have the longest streak of non-losing seasons among any area school, going seven straight seasons with a .500 or better record and qualifying for the District 11 playoffs five times during that span."I've worked under some great coaches during my time at Pleasant Valley," said Versuk. "I've been able to take a little bit from all of them and hope to mold that into my own coaching philosophy. I've been on the staffs of coach (Neil) DeAngelo, coach (Mike) Falcone, coach (Jim) Terwilliger and coach (Dave) Paccihioni, and I want to build on the great foundation that they have established."Part of Versuk's coaching philosophy is the way he measures success."I won't judge our success by wins and losses," Versuk explained. "I plan to measure it by our effort, our execution and our poise. I've tried to convey that philosophy to our players."I don't want them to be overly concerned with the scoreboard. I just want them to continue to play hard and play with poise. I think they did a great job of that Friday against Nazareth. They never panicked even though we were trailing in the fourth quarter."In the final quarter, the PV offense reeled off 21 consecutive points, and the Bear defense stopped Nazareth on four straight possessions. That effort turned a three-point deficit into a relatively comfortable-looking victory."We just kept executing. When you do that, good things happen," said Versuk. "That's why I don't talk about wins and losses too often with our players. I believe that if we give 100 percent physically and stay focused mentally, the positive results will take care of themselves. That's what happened in our opener."An opening night win was a nice way for Versuk to start his head coaching career, and a great way for the Pleasant Valley football team to begin its season.************SCHERER THROUGH THE AIR ... Lehighton's Cody Scherer, as can be found in the Player of the Week story, threw for a school-record 315 yards in Friday's win over Fleetwood.The Indian junior became the seventh Times News area quarterback since 1988 (when individual stats first appeared) to reach 300 yards passing in a game.The others include Pleasant Valley's Derrick Walling, Jim Thorpe's Matt Long and Corey Cinicola, Panther Valley's Cazzie Kosciolek and Craig Goida, and Marian's Stan Dakosty.************CALLING CUNNINGHAM ... Northwestern's Trevor Cunningham not only had a huge game receiving against Palmerton, but also shattered a school record.The Tiger senior collected seven catches for 183 yards and a touchdown. The 183 yards broke the old mark of 135, which was set by Payton Bachman in 2010.In addition to Cunningham's totals, freshman quarterback Deven Bollinger threw for 244 yards. That figure is the second-most at Northwestern, with only Mike Heintzelmann's 264 in 1975 above him.************RAIDERS PASSING GAME ... Tamaqua totaled 223 passing yards in last Friday's victory over Minersville. Thad Zuber threw for 187 of those yards, while Brayden Knoblauch completed a pair of passes for the other 36 yards.The last time the Blue Raiders had more yards through the air was Nov. 6, 1998 (168 games ago) when they compiled 244 against Schuylkill Valley in a 47-8 victory. In that contest, the Tamaqua quarterback was Adam Knoblauch, who completed 10-of-16 passes for all 244 yards - 167 of those yards going to Vince Boyer. Ironically, Adam is Brayden's uncle.************SPEAKING OF PASSING YARDS ... Lehighton, Northwestern and Tamaqua weren't the only area teams to do damage through the air last week.All nine TN teams attempted at least 12 passes and threw for over 100 yards. In fact, the nine squads combined for 1,864 passing yards, an average of 207.1 per club. Their passing yards accounted for 62.6 percent of the combined offensive yards, compared to 37.4 percent on the ground.No area running backs reached 100 yards on Friday, while five receivers made it to triple digits.************COLTS PLAY (AND WIN) OT GAME ... Marian needed overtime to open its season with a win against Penns Valley. The Colts gained the 27-24 victory when Ethan Kuczynski tossed an eight-yard touchdown pass to Nick Erbe.The last time Marian played an overtime contest was Oct. 12, 2007 (97 games ago) when it defeated Minersville, 13-7.Friday's was the fifth OT win by the Colts program, which ties them with Tamaqua for the most in the Times News area. The Colts have now won four straight games in which the contest needed overtime periods.It was also the third time in Times News history that an overtime game was played the first week of the season. The other two times were in 2003 (Pleasant Valley losing 35-28 to Liberty) and 2001 (Northwestern defeating Salisbury, 34-31).************COMEBACK WINS ... Four area teams recorded comeback wins in their season openers.•Lehighton trailed Fleetwood, 30-20, before rallyiing for a victory. The Indians had lost 41 straight times they fell behind by 10 points or more. The last time they overcame a double-digit deficit was Sept. 21, 2007. On that day, Lehighton trailed Pleasant Valley 19-0 before coming back for a 22-19 win.•Pleasant Valley and Northwestern were both losing entering the fourth quarter, but both teams came away with wins. Since 2000, the Tigers are now 8-61 when trailing after three frames, while the Bears are 8-75 when entering the fourth quarter with a deficit.•As stated above, Marian tripped Penns Valley in overtime by a 27-24 score. In the contest, the Colts trailed on three different occasions (6-0, 14-7 and 24-21) before pulling out the victory.