Pleasant Valley has played a lot of long football games in the last few years.

The Bears' potent offense combined with their penchant to play in high-scoring shootouts has led to a number of late endings.A year ago, Pleasant Valley's football games produced an area-high 56.6 points per contest and more points usually means longer games.But the Bears' game against Bethlehem Catholic on Saturday night produced an ending time that was out of the ordinary even by recent Pleasant Valley standards.The Eastern Pennsylvania Conference battle between the Bears and Golden Hawks began at 7 p.m. at Bethlehem School District Stadium and didn't end until 11:30 p.m.It was another typical Pleasant Valley game, producing lots of points and a thrilling finish. But the late ending wasn't just because of the offensive fireworks in Bethlehem Catholic's 40-38 victory, it was due in large part to a 90-minute weather delay.With Pleasant Valley leading 35-21 at halftime, a lightning storm hit the area. When the teams went to the locker rooms it was right around 8:30 p.m. When they eventually resumed play, it was 10:15 p.m. For comparison's sake, Friday's night's mercy-rule game between Saucon Valley and Northern Lehigh was over at 8:45 p.m."Definitely the longest delay and the latest ending game I've been part of since I began coaching," said Pleasant Valley's Dave Pacchioni. "But we were all in agreement that it made more sense to wait out the delay than go home and have to come back Sunday afternoon."(Bethlehem Catholic head coach) Joe (Henrich) and I were in constant communications with the officials during the delay and we both agreed that we wanted to finish it Saturday."Dan Rossino, a veteran PIAA football official with over 20 years of experience, explained how PIAA sports deal with lightning."The National Federation rules, which the PIAA adopts, says once there is a lightning strike in the area that the field is cleared and the game can't be resumed for 30 minutes," explained Rossino. "Every time there is a new lightning strike, the clock starts over again."Rossino, who wasn't officiating Saturday's game, said once they arrive at the field, the officials are in charge."We make the call once we see lighting," said Rossino. "But we are working hand-in-hand with the athletic directors and the coaches."With the technology available today, almost all schools have radar and lightning detectors available. So we are in constant contact with the school officials about severe weather in the area."Rossino said the call of whether to suspend the game and resume it another day or wait out the storm like they did Saturday in Bethlehem is usually a mutual decision between the officials and the teams involved."It costs a lot of money to transport the teams and the bands to the game and to bring back all the personnel needed to run a football game," said Rossino. "So if the school tells us there is going to be a break in the weather and there will be a window where we could fit it in, we usually prefer to wait."At the same time, if they tell us the weather is going to be around for a while, we don't want to keep everyone around longer then absolutely needed. So in those situations, we will try to quickly call the game and bring everyone back the next day."Pacchioni said his decision was based on several factors, including the fact that finishing Sunday would have further shortened this week's tight time table of preparation for powerful Whitehall this Friday night. But he said his final decision was based on input from his players."The kids were amazing. They were sitting in a hot locker room for about 90 minutes, but to a man they said they wanted to go back out and finish the game that night," said Pacchioni. "If they wanted to play, then I definitely wanted to play too."Rossino said he's never officiated a game that had a delay as long as Saturday's or a game that ended as late, but the most important thing is that there was good communication between all parties involved."In the end, even though the officials have the final say, it has to be a mutual decision based on what's best for the teams involved and their student athletes," said Rossino. "From what I understand about Saturday's game, I think that's exactly how it was handled."**********INDIANS SCORING BARRAGE ... Lehighton opened the season with a convincing 47-12 victory over Mahanoy Area and followed it up with a 50-8 rout of Minersville.You have to go back 30 years for the last time the Indians have scored 45-or-more points in back-to-back games. On Oct. 13, 1984, Dave Parsons' squad posted a 53-14 win over Northwestern. In their next contest, the Tribe earned a 53-12 victory against Northern Lehigh.**********BOMBERS RALLY ... After falling behind to Pen Argyl 13-0 last Friday, Palmerton came back to gain a 21-19 victory.Tre Nelson had a pair of touchdowns and Mike Stasko added one in the Blue Bombers' rally.The last time a Palmerton team overcame that big of a deficit was Sept. 25, 2009 when it trailed Saucon Valley 14-0 and ended up winning by an 18-17 score.**********SEVEN IN THE END ZONE ... Marian rolled past Panther Valley last Friday, winning by a 52-0 score.In the contest, seven different Colt players (K.J. Snerr, Angelo Maskornick, Nick Sully, Nico Agosti, Nathan Litsch, Gunnar Rehrig and Anthony Collevechio) scored touchdowns.The last time a Stan Dakosty team had seven different players reach the end zone was Sept. 13, 2008 during a 47-7 victory over Mahanoy Area. The seven players in that game that scored TDs were Joe Kloap, Francis Lally, Evan O'Brien, Shawn Gates, Ian Updike, Dominic Agosti and Dominic Richards.**********EIGHT ENOUGH FOR HALL ... Northwestern's Harry Hall had an outstanding game against Bangor last Friday, rushing for 175 yards and two touchdowns in a 41-0 win.Hall was able to total that much yardage on just eight carries.Over the past 25 seasons, only three other players in the Times News area have registered more yardage on eight or less carries. They are Pleasant Valley's Austyn Borre (246 yards on eight carries on Sept. 7, 2012); Jim Thorpe's Jared Schrantz (205 yards on eight carries on Sept. 23, 1995); and Northern Lehigh's Cody Remaley (192 yards on seven carries on Oct. 1, 2010).**********SHUTOUT x THREE ... Last Friday, three Times News area teams registered victories by shutting out their opponents.Northwestern blanked Bangor, 41-0; Marian downed Panther Valley, 52-0; and Jim Thorpe dropped Shenandoah Valley, 46-0.Those three blankings marked the first time since Sept. 14, 2007 that three TN teams had shutouts on the same day. On that day seven years ago, Palmerton stopped Notre Dame, 39-0; Panther Valley trimmed Upper Merion, 9-0; and Marian topped Mahanoy Area, 17-0.**********PV PASSER ... Brandon Kuehner of Pleasant Valley had one of the top passing games in Times News area history last Saturday during the Bears' 40-38 loss to Bethlehem Catholic.The senior signal-caller completed 12-of-23 passes for 325 yards and three touchdowns. Over the past 25 seasons, only three TN quarterbacks have thrown for more yardage in a single game.Pleasant Valley's Derrik Walling had 349 on Oct. 22, 2010; Jim Thorpe's Matt Long totaled 342 on Oct. 29, 1999; and Panther Valley's Cazzie Kosciolek tossed for 326 on Aug. 30, 1991.**********COLT RECEIVER ... As mentioned above, Marian's Angelo Maskornick contributed to the Colts' win against Panther Valley Friday.The transfer student from Shenandoah Valley caught three passes (two of them touchdowns) for 140 yards.The last time a Marian player had that many receiving yards in a game was Oct, 20, 2006 when Kevin McNavage had 145. Over the past 25 years, only four Colt players have had a single game better than Maskornick McNavage, Jim Mansell, Ryan Wertman and Scott Holloman.**********MILESTONE WIN ... Jim Thorpe's 46-0 win over Shenandoah Valley didn't just improve the Olympians' record to 2-0. It also gave Mark Rosenberger his 100th career victory as head coach at Jim Thorpe.Since 1977, Rosenberger is just the fifth coach in the Times News area to reach that figure. The others include Marian's Stan Dakosty (290 wins), Northwestern's Bob Mitchell (177), Lehighton's Dave Parsons (136) and Northern Lehigh's Jim Tkach (114).It was also fitting that his team gave him a shutout win in reaching the milestone. Of his 100 wins, this was the 25th shutout.