Special teams is an often overlooked component of a football team which can certainly change the momentum of a game in the blink of an eye.

Pleasant Valley's special teams play was picture perfect in its Eastern Pennsylvania Conference clash with Pocono Mountain West. Nyiem Nevarez and Matt Sheehan each had dazzling kick returns for touchdowns in the first quarter. The Bears dominated the "third phase" of the game and shut the door on the Panthers early en route to a 56-12 victory."I always talk about the three phases of the game in regard to special teams, defense and offense," said Pleasant Valley head coach David Pacchioni. "We have talented guys who were in position to make plays tonight. Nevarez and Sheehan had some huge plays, and those type of plays can break opponents' backs."The first half could have been slightly different if the Panthers could have avoided its first half special teams errors. AJ Simon capped off an 11-play Panther drive in which quarterback Mark Smith completed five passes to four different receivers during the sequence. However, the momentum was immediately shifted back to the Bears as Sheehan took the ensuing kickoff 79 yards to the house which gave Pleasant Valley a 21-6 advantage heading into the second frame."We try to get the ball quickly to our athletes and we did a nice job early in the game," said Pocono Mountain West head coach Jim McCarroll. "We killed ourselves on special teams, and made other crucial mental mistakes which led to undiscipline football."Despite fumbling the football five times (two lost), the Bears were productive enough on offense and sound enough on defense to earn an A on its report card in all three phases of the game.Brandon Kuehner added to his already impressive EPC Mountain Divisioin leading 628 yards with two scores and 155 more yards through the air."We had more turnovers and cheap penalties tonight, Pacchione said. "We have to become more discipline and that's all on me right now, I plan on fixing that in practice."The Pleasant Valley mistakes were soon forgotten, as Tyson Calhoun and Nyiem Naverez each picked off the Panther quarterback in the contest. Naverez happened to weave his way 60 yards to the end zone on his intercepting play in the third period."He's a very dynamic player and I'm glad to finally have him back," Pacchione said. "We certainly missed him the past few weeks. He's a major leader in our program and when we have him out there, the other kids feed off of him. He can lock receivers down which makes it easier on the rest of our defense."The Panthers younger squad did some nice things late in the ball game. Nine different players caught a pass in the contest which included a 22-yard fourth quarter touchdown connection between Dylan Della Valle and Malcolm Gibson.McCarroll said, "It's great for our young guys to get some varsity time, they're the future of our program. We need to keep working hard and getting better."Pacchione knows the work is cut out for his squad and the entire program seems hungry and ready for the challenge."If we want to play a significant game in November, every week is a championship week for us. Our main goal as of last week was to go 7-0 over the remainder of our schedule and if we want to play a district game against a tough EPC school, we're going to have to do that."