Stroudsburg cruised to a 31-7 victory over Pleasant Valley on Friday night in an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference game that had huge playoff implications for the Bears.

Although official playoffs brackets won’t be released until Sunday, the loss more than likely prevented Pleasant Valley from qualifying for the District 11 Class 5A playoffs. The Bears (5-5) entered the game knowing that a win would put them into postseason play.

“This is a group that was predicted to finish 3-7 and seventh in the EPC North,” Pleasant Valley head coach Blaec Saeger said. “To close out at .500 and coming from losing 20 starters last year and nine out of 11 starters on both sides of the ball and be able to come out and have the season that we did, we just didn’t get it done tonight. We got beat. Stroudsburg is better than us in every facet and I give them credit. They deserve what they got.”

Pleasant Valley got on the board first with a 49-yard touchdown run from senior quarterback Valentino Byers-Robinson, but then the Mountaineers scored 31 straight points, including 17 in the third quarter.

Stroudsburg didn’t score until 7:14 left in the second quarter when William Francis went in from the 1. Freshman quarterback Jackson Mitchell completed three of his four pass attempts until leaving the game with an injury.

Benjamin Plicher took over when Mitchell went down, and found Kamari Coleman for a 74-yard touchdown pass with 32 seconds left in the third quarter to make the game 24-7.

“Plicher was our starting quarterback the first four games this year and then Jack (Mitchell) stepped up then,” Stroudsburg head coach Jim Miller said. “It’s sort of nice because we have a quarterback that can run the ball and a guy that can throw the ball. We’re going to utilize both of them.”

Both Plicher and Mitchell combined for 202 passing yards in the game. The Stroudsburg defense only allowed the one touchdown to Byers-Robinson and held 1,000-yard rusher Alex Ecker to 42 yards.

“I know we gave up that one touchdown right off the bat and the triple-option that Blaec (Saeger) runs is you need to pay attention to everything,” Miller said. “Once we got used to their speed and how they are, we did pretty well against it. Offensively, we were able to move the ball throwing and running it. There’s things we have to work on and get ready for next Friday night.

Stroudsburg improves to 6-4 and Pleasant Valley must wait until Sunday to find out its postseason fate.

“I would love to coach these guys another week,” Saeger said.

THE SEASON ... Saeger said his team did a good job during the season and held on after a tough three-game stretch against Pocono Mountain West, Northampton and Nazareth. “We had another tough loss against (Pocono Mountain) West early in the year, one that we’d like to have back, but another good team,” Saeger said. “We hung, we did some great things at different times and we did a lot, so it maximized where we can be. We maybe over-achieved a little bit and it’s a tribute to these kids and who they are.”

DISTRICTS ... The win puts Stroudsburg in the District 11 Class 6A playoffs. “We got out of here pretty healthy and it’s going to be a different kind of speed and a different level now that you’re in district play,” Miller said