All losses hurt, but the positives that a team takes away from that loss can be significant as well, and sometimes, just as important as the final score.

Pascack Valley lost its season-opener to River Dell by a score of 22-21 Friday night at River Dell High School, with a two point pass by quarterback David Estevez to wide receiver Matt McHale in the final minute being the difference in the game.

“Well, it’s a shame somebody had to lose that game, it was a hard fought battle between both teams,” PV coach Len Cusumano said.

While the final score may not have gone in PV’s favor, a lot of other things did. The offensive line — tackles Charlie Looes and Andrew Demboski, guards Brandon Lin and Jerry Madden, center Matt Curcurato, and tight end Justin Nicita — played a fine game, as they consistently opened holes for Valley’s weapons out of the backfield.

Running backs Jake Williams and Stephen Soravilla especially benefited from the strong play of the offensive line, as the former scored 2 touchdowns and the latter had 59 yards on the ground. With a brand new quarterback in sophomore Stephen Begen, PV played a ground and pound style all game.

PV also did a solid job defensively, as it limited Estevez and the other weapons on the River Dell offense. While PV’s defense certainly did not shut Estevez down, as he still finished with 3 total TD’s and had 128 rushing yards, Cusumano was quick to heap praise on his defense for a job well done.

“I think the defense played outstanding,” he said. “I mean, their quarterback is obviously one of the better players in the county, and I think we did a good job of bottling him up.”

In his first varsity game on Friday, sophomore Stephen Begen, even though he had limited opportunities to shine in a run heavy offense, did a decent job of hitting his open targets, and finished with 42 yards passing.

“We didn’t really play good enough as a team,” said Looes, who played a strong game that included a fumble recovery, “We have to play better as a team. I don’t care how good I do, we need to do better as a team and it starts in practice. We need to have harder practices, and that’s how we are going to end up winning the games.”

Pascack Valley plays its next game on Saturday at home against Old Tappan, with kickoff scheduled for 1 p.m.