POCONO SUMMIT - Blaec Saeger has molded a team in his image.

Pleasant Valley embodies Saeger’s spirit, with toughness and tenacity and an unwavering will to win.

The Bears stood tall with their backs against the wall Friday night to snap a three-game losing streak with an emphatic 26-14 victory over Pocono Mountain West.

Clinging to a one score lead early in the fourth quarter, Pleasant Valley produced a goal line stand to keep the Panthers out of the end zone.

The Bears (6-3) turned around and drove the length of the field, taking well over seven minutes off the clock to seal the win.

“A fourth down stop on the one yard line, and we go 99 yards to put it away, if that ain’t this team, I don’t know what is, man,” said Saeger. “They’ve got the heart of a warrior. They never quit, they never die. If they (PM West) would have scored there, I’d like to think we would have done the same thing.

“But 99 yards; that’s what we’re made of. Putting it on the ground when they know we’re putting it on the ground, and smashing it right at them and winning. We got the kids to do it, and they are just tough as nails.”

Facing a fourth and goal from the one-yard line, Pleasant Valley stuffed a run by Luke DeRiggi to keep a 20-14 lead with 9:43 to play in the game. The Panthers (4-5) also had a touchdown run by Ian McHugh called back because of holding two plays earlier.

McHugh made it to the goal line with a 16-yard scramble on third down to set up the fourth down play.

The Bears’ offense responded with a devastating 16 play drive, that ended with Fela Olaniyan in the end zone for the third time to extend the lead to 26-14, and only 2:07 left in the game.

“It’s what coach said, everything about PV football, we all embody that,” Olaniyan said of the decisive drive. “Every position, everything that we do, every play, we all embody that PV football.”

Olaniyan carried the ball 37 times for 186 yards and three scores.

Momentum from a solid drive to close out the first half seemed to carry over into the third quarter for PM West.

The Panthers got a stop on fourth down for the second drive in a row, and produced a 69-yard drive, which ended with McHugh finding Tyrese Hester Bey for a 12-yard score to cur the deficit to 20-14 with 4:01 left in the period. McHugh also connected with Hester Bey for a 19-yard gain on fourth and four earlier in the drive.

“We could not stop them in the second half,” said Saeger. “They had a great plan, and executed it really well. ... But the kids made a play at the end.”

McHugh completed 22-of-34 passes for 201 yards and two scores.

Pleasant Valley answered an early West score with Olaniyan going in from 39 yards out and an extra point from Rory Robinson to make it 7-7 with 3:58 remaining in the opening quarter.

Following a fourth down conversion at the West 45-yard line on its next drive, PV got a play off before the horn sounded, and Romeo Winckler took the ball 43 yards for a score to make it 14-7 at the end of the first quarter.

The Bears scored on their third straight series, with Olaniyan going in from three yards out to make it 20-7 with 2:44 to play in the first half.

Pleasant Valley had a pair of third down conversions on the drive, and also picked up a first down on a fourth and five from the West 35 with Jarod Moore gaining five yards.

A 25-yard pass from Valentino Byers-Robinson to Alexander Ecker put the Bears at the Panthers five-yard line, with Olaniyan punching it in two plays later.

West took over at its own 30-yard line following a fourth down stop with around a minute to play in the first half, and quickly moved to the PV five-yard line in five plays.

The Panthers had two shots at the end zone with 8.3 seconds to play, but the Bears defense forced a pair of incompletions to keep the score 20-7 at the intermission.

BACK ON TRACK

... The Bears had suffered losses to Parkland, Northampton and Freedom the previous three weeks after a 5-0 start.

FINISHING STRONG

... Pleasant Valley, which has clinched a spot in the District 11 Class 5A playoffs and stands third behind Southern Lehigh and Whitehall, will close out the regular season at home next week against Stroudsburg.