ALLENTOWN - Alex Ecker had some memorable games growing up playing youth football.

Few will top the one the Pleasant Valley senior put together Friday night.

Ecker finished with 302 yards and four touchdowns on 25 carries to help the Bears down Dieruff 41-14 in Eastern Pennsylvania Conference action.

“When I was younger, I would get maybe three to five touchdowns per game,” Ecker said. “I used to run a lot. But that was then; high school is a completely different sport.”

And Ecker is a different kind of player.

The senior had seven carries for 73 yards on the opening drive, capping it with a six yard score.

Ecker bolted for a 53 yard TD early in the second quarter, and gained 184 yards on 18 carries to help Pleasant Valley (1-1) build a 20-0 lead.

“When it’s working well, that’s how we play,” said Bears’ head coach Blaec Saeger. “Ecker is a beast, and he’s going to have big games, and he knows it. He’s so humble. He knows it’s a tribute to the line in front on him, the wings blocking and Val (Byers-Robinson, quarterback) making the right reads. A lot of times it’s Val putting the ball in the right hands, and Ecker is talented. You saw how big and fast he is. He’s going to have a big year. He’s a great kid and a hard worker.

“He kind of sat behind Fela (Olaniyan, who rushed for 1,170 yards - fifth best in the area - and 13 touchdowns - sixth best - in 2022) last year just waiting his turn. I told everybody who would listen, we miss Fell, but we’ll be just fine because I knew what we had here.”

Ecker ripped off two long second half touchdown runs, the first a 43-yard scamper late in the third quarter and his final score a 51-yard sprint in the fourth to make it 41-14.

“It’s great for me, but I’m going nowhere without my line, going nowhere without my quarterback, my team,” said Ecker, who nearly had an interception in the fourth quarter. “They’re all helping me. Without them, I’m not getting these touchdowns and these yards.

“I just like celebrating my line, my team. I don’t like it being about me. I just like it being about everybody.”

Both of those touchdowns also answered a pair of Dieruff (0-2) scores.

Quarterback Jordey Guzman hit Luiz Martinez for a 61-yard strike on fourth and nine with 3:24 left in the third quarter to cut the Bears’ lead to 28-7.

After Ecker made it 34-7 with his third touchdown of the game, Guzman found Martinez again for a 21-yard score in the fourth before Ecker added his final touchdown run with 8:59 to play to eclipse 300 yards on the ground.

“Dieruff is a great team, with a lot of big guys, and we were very, very physical,” Saeger said. “I was very pleased with the way we won on the offensive line, being out-manned, being undersized; the wings were throwing their bodies in there and everybody sacrificed. That’s what it’s all about, and they’re buying in.”

Aaron Rehrig capped a drive that took over seven minutes off the clock and had two fourth down conversions with a 14-yard score with 28.9 left in the second quarter to make it 20-0.

Blake Walters came up with an interception on Dieruff’s final drive before the first half.

Rehrig capped Pleasant Valley’s first drive of the second half with a six yard score, with Ecker adding the two-point conversion to make it 28-0. The score was set up by a 36-yard completion from Byers-Robinson to Aaron Haden on fourth and 12 at the Dieruff 42-yard line.

“Walters, senior captain, what a great kid. That was huge for us,” said Saeger. “They’re fantastic kids, they work hard, they’re tough, they bought into who we are. They realize we’re not going to be four and five wide and spread it all over throwing it around. That’s not us, that’s not how we’re built. That’s not how I do it. But they’ve accepted it, they love it. They grind it out, and they play old school football, and it wins.”

TEAM EFFORT

... The Bears rushed for 394 yards thanks in large part to the work of center Connor Smith, guards Thatcher Roberti and Christian Koehler, tackles Nick Marsh and AJ Hower, tight ends Angelo Syracuse, Aiden Lollis and Isaac Westerman, wings Blake Walters, Dakoda Lucas, Hunter Scheffner and Aaron Rehrig and wide receivers Aaron Haden, Andrew Fishon and Nick Iandoli.

UP NEXT

... Pleasant Valley host East Stroudsburg South Thursday at 7:10 p.m.