Two hot teams came to play in Friday night’s game between Pocono Mountain West and Pleasant Valley.

In the end, Ryder Bray’s passing game and the Panthers defense was too much for the Bears as Pocono Mountain West gained a 28-7 victory.

“They made it difficult and forced the perimeter,” Pleasant Valley head coach Blaec Saeger said. “We’re not real successful out there. Even with that being said, our O-line wasn’t quite what it needed to be.

“I coach the O-line, so I’ll take the blame. We just (have) to be better. They were more physical and made big plays and won the crunch downs. We just could never really get going.”

Pleasant Valley senior quarterback Valentino-Byers Robinson broke away for a 66-yard touchdown run for the game’s first score early in the first quarter.

After the big run, PV wasn’t able to get the run game going and running back Alex Ecker had a tough night on the ground.

“Our guys were very physical tonight and you have to be physical against Pleasant Valley,” Pocono Mountain West head coach Jim McCarroll said. “Coach Saeger does a great job with these guys. Our guys did assignment defense. They did their job and we bent a little bit. They got some plays. You’re always going to get some plays with the option. You can’t cover anything, but we didn’t give up too many huge runs.

“We gave up that first one. After that, they were all nickel and diming us and they got a few first downs, but we were able to stop them and make them punt the ball.”

Pleasant Valley fumbled the ball twice and Pocono Mountain West was able to recover both times.

West didn’t score on either turnover, but the Panthers capitalized on a big 54-yard pass play from Bray to Brandon Evans to set up a 1-yard touchdown run to make the score 21-7 in the third quarter.

The Pocono Mountain West passing game proved to be effective all night as Bray found Brady Behr in the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at seven in the first quarter. Bray found Behr again with 4:45 left in the first half on a 22-yard touchdown to give West a six-point lead heading into halftime.

“We did some different things and played some man defense that we normally don’t do with varying success,” Saeger said. “We threw a lot at them and more than we usually do, but they handled it well.”

Both teams came into Friday’s night game on separate winning streaks.

Pocono Mountain West was riding a three-game win streak, while Pleasant Valley won their last four games.

“This has turned into a very good football game the last few years,” McCarroll said. “Blaec does a great job with them. They’re very similar to us and their battles. It’s going to be a physical football game and our kids knew that.

“They knew it was 4-1 against 3-2, and this is a big one for us. We’re both (in Class) 5A, so that was a huge win for us to go 4-2.”

A lot was at stake in the game with both teams building up momentum in the last few weeks, and West was able to come out and limit the Pleasant Valley run game for most of the night.

INTENSITY UP ... Pocono Mountain West is now in the third spot in the 5A division, while the Bears are fourth. West beat PV 19-0 in 2021, and the Bears bounced back the next year to beat the Panthers 26-14 in last season’s contest. “It wasn’t from a lack of effort or being flat,” Saeger said. “We came out to play. We went up 7-0 and they out-physicaled us and beat us. They out-coached, out-played and out-everythinged us. That’s the way it goes sometimes.”

WEST WIN ... Pocono Mountain West has won fourth straight game after dropping the first two games of the season. Bray finished with 143 passing yards and the two touchdowns to Behr.

UP NEXT ... West faces East Stroudsburg North on Friday before two big games against Northampton and Allentown Central Catholic. It doesn’t get any easier for PV, as it hits the road the next two weeks at Northampton and Nazareth.