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Pleasant Valley rolls past Dieruff

ALLENTOWN - Pleasant Valley head coach Mark Versuk doesn't worry about how many points his team scores.

After watching the Bears average 45.2 points per game over the first six weeks of the season, he hasn't had to.Pleasant Valley put on another impressive performance Friday, rolling to a 62-20 win over Dieruff."We're just trying to score every time we get the ball," Versuk said. "We're just working on execution."We don't really look at how much we score - we just try to execute every time we have the ball."A week after running back Mike Mitchell stole the show with 385 yards of total offense against East Stroudsburg South, it was quarterback Brandon Keyes' turn to take center stage.Keyes completed 17-of-24 passes for 306 yards and six touchdowns as the Bears (6-1) racked up 485 yards of total offense.Three of Keyes' touchdowns came in the first half, including a 39-yard strike to Mike Brown with 18.3 seconds to go in the second quarter to give Pleasant Valley a 28-6 lead.The Huskies (2-5) cut it to 28-13 less than three minutes into the second half when Quidanie Vega threw his second touchdown of the game.But the Bears answered on their next drive as Keyes hit Mike Mitchell for a 52-yard score on third-and-seven to make it 34-13.The dagger came on Pleasant Valley's next possession, when Keyes hit Brent Beck for a 36-yard score on fourth-and-six to make it 41-13 with 1:49 to play in the third quarter."It was a good game," Keyes said. "I think we came out a little slow on offense and then we started executing and the defense was picking it up."We just executed in the second half and we just completed our game plan."That strategy was to take it to the air, as Keyes hit four different players for touchdowns.Justin Richardson (five catches, 97 yards), Mitchell (five catches, 87 yards), Beck (one catch, 36 yards) and Brown (two catches, 62 yards) all had at least one receiving touchdown.After rushing for 301 yards a week ago, Mitchell finished with 31 yards on the ground against the Huskies."We came in knowing that we were gonna pass the ball because they came up on play-fakes," said Keyes. "After Mike's game last week, they were definitely going to play the run."The defense also came up big, forcing three interceptions and limiting Dieruff to just 59 yards rushing."We were able to shore things up in the second half and do what we had to do," said Versuk.JOIN THE PARTY… Zach Altemose carried the ball seven times for 74 yards and scored a touchdown, adding a new wrinkle to the Bears' attack. "We wanted to get Zach in the game," Versuk said. "We had him in a couple formations, this is just the one that we used him in."He's a backup lineman for us and he's also our starting defensive tackle and he runs the ball hard. When he's in there, now you have to shore up the middle, which might open up more lanes for our tailbacks, either Beck or Mitchell. It just adds another dimension to our offense."HOME AWAY FROM HOME… Friday marked Pleasant Valley's third game of the season at J. Birney Crum. The Bears suffered their only loss at the stadium to Allentown Central Catholic but have picked up wins over Allen and Dieruff.