Sometimes a great week of practice for a very important game fails to deliver an anticipated result.

Pocono Mountain East shut down Pleasant Valley on Friday night 28-0 in a performance by the Bears where nothing seemed to go right.

Saddled by turnovers, a dropped touchdown pass, and a plethora of untimely penalties, the home team never was able to sustain a long drive, did not get into the red zone and lost the Old Oaken Bucket trophy to the Cardinals for the second year in a row.

In a game that had 21 penalties and nine turnovers, the Cardinals were able to overcome their miscues with the stutter-step running of Amari Green and the pinpoint passing of Ceejay Serfass.

Green, who racked up 230 yards rushing last week, ran for 118 yards on 17 carries and would have scored all four of his team’s touchdowns if it were not for his fumble that was recovered by lineman Johnny Pezutti, who fell on the loose ball in the end zone.

In the first quarter after one of the first of two Bears’ fumbles in the game, Green capped a six play, 36-yard drive with a two-yard plunge.

Two possessions later, Pleasant Valley fumbled the ball way again, setting up the Cardinals deep in Bears’ territory. Green fumbled across the goal line, but Pezutti’s recovery gave their team a 14-0 lead with 9:59 to go in the second quarter.

During the intermission, Bears’ coach Blaec Saeger tried to calm his team while making a few schematic adjustments for the second half.

For a few plays, it looked like the halftime talk had worked. After receiving the third quarter kickoff, the Bears moved the chains for two quick first downs and could have scored a TD, but a wide-open receiver dropped a perfectly thrown pass by quarterback Jaxson Haines.

Despite the lack of sustained offense, the Bears trailed by only two TDs going into the final quarter.

East then began a three minute drive to paydirt. The big play was a 43-yard post pattern pass from Serfass, who was 18-of-25 for 217 yards, to Justin Williams. From the three, Green punched it over for a 21-0 advantage.

The next Pleasant Valley drive looked the previous ones. For most of the game, the Cardinals did a great job shutting down the Bears’ triple option and also cast a blanket on their receivers when pass plays were called. On the night, Chris Ward led PV’s rushing attack with 59 yards.

East (5-3) put the game away by mixing runs by Green with a few accurate throws by Serfass. A final touchdown was scored with 2:33 left to play.

Saeger told his team after the game to let their performance get out of their heads.

“If you don’t and let this carry into next week and the rest of the season, we will lose them all,” he said. We have to move on.

“You will lose a lot in life and this is just a football game. No one will remember this 10 years from now.”

Saeger gave credit to PM East. “We pride ourselves in playing physical football, but tonight they were much more physical. We’ll watch the film, correct our mistakes and move on to the next game.”

NOT SUPPOSED TO BE … Teams that have multiple turnovers and more penalties than their opponents usually lose. But not the Cardinals this time. They turned the ball over five times and were flagged for 133 yards, yet still won the convincingly.

T-MOBILE AWARDS … The communication company paid for every fan’s attendance at the game and presented a check to Pleasant Valley for $25,000. The school is the only one from PA that is still in the running to win $1 million.

NEXT UP… The Bears travel to Pocono Mountain West next Friday to take on the Panthers.

PM East 28, Pleasant Valley 0

PM East 7 7 0 14 - 28

Pleasant Vy. 0 0 0 0 - 0

PME - Green 2 run (Angst kick)

PME - Pezzuti fumble recovery in end zone (Angst kick)

PME - Green 3 run (Angst kick)

PME - Green 8 run (Angst kick)