The Pleasant Valley Bears began the 2022 regular season 5-0, before a three-game losing skid against several Lehigh Valley powerhouses.

However, the Bears bounced right back against Pocono Mountain West with a 26-14 victory in Week 9, and finished off Stroudsburg with a 14-13 win in the final week of the regular season.

Pleasant Valley’s 7-3 regular season was not only good enough to qualify for the District 11 Class 5A playoffs, but it was also good enough to earn the Bears the No. 2 seed and a home game in the semifinal round of the playoffs.

Pleasant Valley will entertain Whitehall on Friday at 7 p.m.

“The Stroudsburg game went exactly like I think we would’ve both planned,” Pleasant Valley head coach Blaec Saeger said. “Who knows who would’ve won at the end, but I think everybody involved knew it was going to be a tough battle right down to the end.

“One play decided it, and it happened to go our way. We didn’t do a whole lot to impact the one play that turned out to be the difference - it basically came down to a botched snap (on a conversion for Stroudsburg), but sometimes it’s the team that makes the least amount of mistakes that wins - and that’s what happened last Friday night.”

Looking ahead to this week’s postseason opponent, Whitehall will enter the game with a 5-5 record.

The Zephyrs have lost three of their last four games after starting the season 4-2.

But don’t let Whitehall’s 5-5 record fool you. The Zephyrs took down a strong Allentown Central Catholic team in Week 8 and also squeezed out a win against rival Parkland in Week 5. Whitehall’s other wins have come against Liberty, Easton and Pocono Mountain West.

The teams have faced four common opponents this season, with Whitehall going 2-2, and Pleasant Valley 1-3. Going by comparative scores, the Zephyrs had an edge in every game.

Whitehall beat Pocono Mountain West (35-0) and Parkland (32-31). It lost to Northampton (42-7) and to Freedom (33-14). Meanwhile, the Bears beat PMW (26-14), and lost to Parkland (38-7), Northampton (46-7) and Freedom (49-0).

“The North teams traditionally do not fair well against the South teams,” Saeger said. “That’s to be expected, and we know we have a heck of an opponent coming up here in Whitehall.

“They are going to be as good as Parkland, Freedom and Northampton - the other South teams that the Bears have played this year - and we have not shown up the way we would like against those teams. We have another opportunity, and we feel we’re built to hang around with a superior opponent with the schemes that we run.”

Last year in the opening round of the Class 6A playoffs, Pleasant Valley came into its game against powerhouse Northampton as a huge underdog, but gave the Konkrete Kids all they could handle, before eventually losing by a couple of touchdowns.

“Our kids our excited to play, and we get to host it. They’ve got to come to us,” said Saeger. “We’re going to try what we did last year against Northampton - run the ball, control the clock, play defense and hang around.

“The plan is to make it a close game going into the fourth quarter, and then try to make a play and see what we can do to pull out the win.”