BETHLEHEM With four minutes and one second left on the clock and down by a two points, Pleasant Valley was facing fourth and goal literally inches away from the goal line against Bethlehem Catholic.

Almost everyone was expecting the Bears to go for a field goal and the lead, especially after Dean Krcic hit a 42-yard field goal earlier in the second half.But first-year Pleasant Valley head coach Dave Pacchion decided to go the touchdown.It didn't quite work out the way Pacchion, his coaching staff, and the PV faithful had hoped. The Hawks stood their ground, caught Trent Thomas short of the endzone, and forced the Bears to turn the ball over on downs with 3:56 left in the game.Bethlehem Catholic literally ran the time out, handing the Bears a 40-38 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference defeat."Absolutely," said Pacchion, of knowing the question was coming on why he made the choice he did at that point of the game. "I trust our offensive line with all my heart. I felt that they would get the job done. It came up short."It's my call. In the end, you look and you're like, 'Well, what if this? What if that?' There are no 'ifs.' I think we should have got it done, but we came up short."Pleasant Valley's first offensive play of the game showed it was intent on reversing an opening week 49-14 loss to Easton.Trailing 7-0, the Bears worked a flea-flicker to perfection as quarterback Brandon Keuhner took the flip back from Austin Borre, after handing the ball to him, and found Demetrius Green in stride for a 78-yard touchdown to tie things up just 21 seconds after the Bethlehem Catholic score.Becahi was rolling on its second series, but the Bears' Antonio Santana put a hit on the Hawks' quarterback Julian Spigner, forcing the ball to float in the air and Brendan Kearns came down with it and took off for a 49-yard interception for a touchdown.The Bears rolled off that momentum as Trent Thomas scored on a 22-yard run and Kuehner and Borre hooked up for touchdown passes of five and 60 yards as PV took a 35-21 lead into half.The storms then came and forced the officials to delay the game for an hour and a half. The lightning finally tapered off and the teams stepped back out on the field at 10:10 p.m.The only Bears' score following the long delay was Krcic's 42-yard field goal. The rest of the night belonged to Michael McDaniel and the Hawks. After rushing for 71 yards in the first half, McDaniel became the Hawks' workhorse, finishing with 197 yards on 22 carries.Despite McDaniel's effort, the Bears might still have won if not for one crazy play.With 4:31 left in the third quarter and Becahi on its own 44-yard line, Spigner hit Freddie Simmons with a pass in the flat. Simmons caught the ball and ran around for about 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage trying to avoid tacklers. In a final act of desperation, he lateraled the ball back to Spigner again who raced all the way for a touchdown.."In the second half for some reason, we got undisciplined. All those penalities put us back, pushed us back," Pacchion said. "And, you can't have that when you play a team like this, especially when you have an hour and a half break and then you come back out. There's no way you can do that."Despite the mistakes, Pacchion was proud of the effort he got."Our kids came to play," he said. "They just came out on the short end of the stick."