ALLENTOWN — Unforced errors.

In the game of football, momentum is key, and if a team continuously shoots itself in the foot with unforced errors, it can get ugly pretty quickly. Unfortunately for Pleasant Valley, that was the case on Friday night against Eastern Pennsylvania Conference North Division opponent Allen. Costly mistakes at inopportune times played right into the Canaries’ hands as they came away with a 33-14 victory.

It seemed that time and time again on the night whenever the Bears got anything going disaster would strike. Twice in the first half the Bears were inside the Allen 36-yard line, but couldn’t cash in with any points on those possessions.

Late in the first, a fumble around the Allen 15-yard line when the Bears were driving was returned 54 yards by the Canaries, setting up their first score of the night. A mishandled snap, followed by a sack, forced the Bears to punt after driving inside the Allen 36-yard line midway through the second quarter.

There were many instances on the night where Pleasant Valley would put two or three nice plays together, but then a penalty or a fumble would kill its momentum.

“It’s been two weeks of being consistently inconsistent, we need to do the little things better. There were times when we would put some things together and we would look like a good football team, but then we would have a bad snap or run the wrong route,” said Bears head coach Matt Kosciolek. “We’re just not good enough to make those mistakes. We can’t spot any team anything. We have a few guys who have that chip on their shoulder, who will fight back when things aren’t going our way. We need to get everybody on that same page.”

Allen took advantage of the first quarter Pleasant Valley fumble, returning it 54 yards to the PV 30. A few plays later Jonathan Marks would hit Jorge Torres with a 15-yard strike to put Allen up 7-0. The Canaries would extend their lead to 13 at the 10-minute mark of the second when power running back Ezekial Rabenold, who had a big night, scored from 21 yards out.

Still, Pleasant Valley wasn’t out of this one. The Bears would put together a 12-play drive, ending with a one-yard touchdown plunge by quarterback Jack Stephens to close within a score with just 21 second remaining in the half.

However, Pleasant Valley’s inconsistency returned in the second half as its offense sputtered out of the gate. Meanwhile, the Canaries added two more rushing touchdowns by Rabenold in the third quarter to increase its lead 27-7. The Bears had just two possessions in the third quarter, both ending with punts.

Allen put the game away early in the fourth. A Shyhem Dow 43-yard scamper set up another short-yardage plunge from Rabenold to make it 33-7.

“Our guys played their hearts out tonight. We just wanted to stay balanced, and kind-of control the clock and keep the ball in our hands,” said Allen head coach George Clay. “This is a win we can build off, and I was proud of the way we played up front both ways.”

Pleasant Valley would add a late game touchdown by Nasai Moon.

RUMBLING RABENOLD … Allen’s Rabenold had three short touchdown runs on the night and also hauled in a 24-yard touchdown reception.

STRUGGLING OFFENSE … The Bears had a rough go on the offensive side of the ball as they punted seven times and had five fumbles (one lost).