STROUDSBURG - The scoreboard illuminated a bright, clear message: Stroudsburg 41, Pleasant Valley 21.

Blaec Saeger stood below it surrounded by his team and communicated what he saw.

“They are such a tremendous group of people,” said the Bears head coach. “Their perseverance and their work ethic, every day; not just today, everything going all the way back to January, through COVID, through the quarantine and back in the summer, every day they’re just there to get better. They work so freaking hard.

“And yeah, this isn’t where we want to be, but it’s still a step in the right direction and it’s all them and my staff ... they’re just workers. We just put our nose to the grindstone and we just go. We’re making steps in the right direction. Obviously, we have another giant step to go. It’s one thing to compete and stand toe-to-toe with them, it’s another thing to beat them.”

Pleasant Valley (1-2) took two huge body blows early on Friday night.

The Mounties (4-1) scored on their first two possessions, with senior Jayce Tutty rushing in from 6 and 42 yards out to open a 13-0 advantage with 3:32 remaining in the first quarter.

Both drives came after the Bears fumbled on their first two possessions.

But Pleasant Valley kept swinging, going 87 yards on its third series, which was capped by a 24-yard touchdown pass from Robert Papaleo to Ryan Blass to cut the deficit to 13-7.

Stroudsburg made it a two score after Ethan Sodl hit Kevin Duffy for a 36-yard touchdown to cap a 99-yard drive and push its lead to 20-7 with 1:31 left before halftime.

The Bears got off the ropes and went 71 yards in two plays, highlighted by Jake Gethen’s 40-yard touchdown pass to Papaleo with 58.5 remaining in the second quarter.

The Mounties pushed the ball to Pleasant Valley’s 10-yard line on their next drive but missed on a field-goal attempt, leaving the score 20-14 at the break.

“We knew we were going to take some punches, this is Stroudsburg,” said Saeger. “They’re a good football team, and they’re going to hit us in the mouth and the they’re going to score. I want to see how you respond. They responded like these kids always respond.”

Stroudsburg took the Bears’ best shots and kept pushing forward in the second half.

After both teams traded punts to open the third quarter, the Mounties started to settle in. Tutty finished off a 93-yard drive on Stroudsburg’s second series with a 12-yard touchdown and ran in the two-point conversion attempt to push the lead to 28-14 with under a minute to play in the third.

Tutty came up with a pick on Pleasant Valley’s next drive scored his fourth touchdown of the game from six yards out four plays later to make it 34-14 with 9:31 to play in the game.

The senior finished with 169 yards on 22 carries.

“He’s a selfless player,” Mounties coach Jim Miller said of Tutty. “He was a slot receiver and we needed a tailback, and he went right to tailback, never complained. And he’s doing a great job for us. I gave him some breaks there at the end and put Andre (Reames) in, but Tutty does everything you ask him to do for the team. He’s a true team player.”

Reames had just two carries, but he made them count. The sophomore flew down the field for a 49-yard touchdown with 4:49 to play. The score came after Jared Salazar went in from 2 yards out for the Bears to make it 34-21.

Reames finished with 94 yards on two carries, and also had an interception on the Bears’ final drive.

UP NEXT

... Pleasant Valley is currently eighth in the District 11 Class 6A power rankings. While the Bears postseason prospects are uncertain, they do have a date with Pocono Mountain East in the bucket game on Nov. 13, a contest that was rescheduled from earlier this season after positive COVID cases within the district forced the program to shutdown for two weeks. Stroudsburg is currently fourth.

GOT THEIR NUMBER

... The Mounties are 15-2 against the Bears since 2004.