Sometimes you can win even when you lose - and that was certainly the case for the Pioneer Valley football team in Friday night's 30-28 road loss to Templeton.

A last-second field goal may have cost the Panthers from capturing their fifth straight victory, but the back-and-forth battle on the Templeton High School gridiron proved a lot to the first-year varsity program.

They are ready for next year.

When coach Greg Dickinson addressed his players immediately following the game, he said that the loss did not cost them a league title because they are not in a league this season. The Panthers are playing a freelance schedule - and last night was their first game on the road and their first against an established program.

Dickinson, who left nearby Righetti High to build a program from the ground up at Pioneer, knew the greater importance of the game than just the final result. His team is ready for the Los Padres League.

"Our kids played hard. They didn't back down," said Dickinson. "That is a good team. They are not undefeated for nothing. This was a big test and I think we passed it. Even if we didn't get an 'A', we got a 98 percent."

The Panthers (4-1) showed their resilience on defense when junior Shane Vogt stopped Eagles tailback Casey Smith for a loss on fourth-and-one from the Pioneer six-yard line with 2:22 left and trailing 27-20.

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Then, the Panthers showed it on offense when Dickinson called for one of several trick plays - a double pass that hit for 51 yards. Junior quarterback Bryan Beyers started by passing the ball behind the line of scrimmage to junior Frank Tovar - who stopped and made a perfect toss to sophomore Josiah Morales to move the chains to the Templeton 41-yard line.

Beyers demonstrated his leadership by hitting junior tight end Aaron Hernandez on consecutive pass plays - one for 15 yards and the second for a 24-yard touchdown to bring the Panthers within one barring the extra point.

"I knew we could do it. We have a great quarterback, Bryan Beyers. He took hit after hit and stuck with it," said Hernandez. "We practice the two-minute drill every day. We just knew we could do it."

Dickinson then made the gutsiest call of the game when he called a timeout and opted to go for two and the lead rather than kick the extra point for the tie.

"I just asked my kids, 'Should we kick it or go for two? And they said, 'We didn't come here to tie. We're here to win," said Dickinson, who sent in his jumbo package for the two-point attempt.

On the play, the ball was snapped directly to junior back-up quarterback Chris Etheridge - who rolled out to his right and hit Hernandez in the end zone to put the Panthers ahead 28-27.

But 1:16 still remained on the clock - and the Eagles (4-0) were not about to throw in the towel even after three consecutive incomplete passes put them in a fourth-and-10 from their own 26-yard line.

Templeton quarterback Austin Miller went to a play that worked several times before - hitting senior tailback Austin Feaval on a screen pass that went for 25 yards and a first down.

After spiking the ball to stop the clock, Miller connected with a nine-yard pass to Matt Lewis and then a 14-yarder to Ted Dellaganna with under 30 ticks left. Now on the Pioneer Valley 26, Miller tried a quick sneak up the middle for two and then handed off to Feavel - who danced around the backfield before being taken down just inside the 20-yard line.

With :03.7 showing, the Eagles set up for a 26-yard field goal and Dickinson called Pioneer Valley's final timeout to try and ice Templeton's kicker, Dellaganna, who had already missed two second-half field goals.

This time, however, Dellaganna booted it right through the uprights to send his teammates and the hometown fans into a frenzy.

"We should have went for the field goal the first time we were down there," said Templeton coach Don Crow, looking back to Vogt's tackle-for-a-loss. "To be honest, we ran a play to get the ball right in front of the goal posts, but (Feavel) ended up running all over and to the side."

It ended up being the perfect spot for Dellaganna.

"We knew they were pretty good," said Crow of the Panthers. "Coach Dickinson would not leave Righetti, a team that always makes the playoffs, and go to that school if he didn't think he had good players. They're going to be good."

The Eagles struck first on the game's opening drive with Miller scrambling in from 25 yards out - and threatened to go up by two touchdowns until a big sack for a loss.

On the ensuing drive, the Panthers marched 54 yards to tie the score at 7-7 capped by Beyers one-yard touchdown run.

Two plays into the second quarter, Templeton regained the lead on an 11-yard TD run by Matt Lewis, but a failed two-point conversion kept its lead at 13-7.

With 6:34 left in the half, Pioneer Valley took its first lead on an eight-yard hook-up from Beyers to Hernandez - with Gabriel Nunez adding an extra point to put the Panthers up 14-13.

After maintaining their one-point lead at the half, the Panthers got a big boost on the first play from scrimmage to start the second half when tailback Buddy Garcia exploded up the middle for an 84-yard touchdown run.

The Eagles then kept their composure following a missed field goal and an interception by Pioneer Valley cornerback Steve Rucobo and tied things at 20-all on Feavel's 20-yard touchdown gallop in closing seconds of the third quarter.

The score remained tied until the Eagles capitalized on a second straight Pioneer Valley fumble in the fourth quarter with Smith scoring from 17 yards out.

Oct. 1, 2005