SHALER TWP — Seneca Valley junior quarterback Jack Cook may have been an unknown to a lot of people two months ago.

But Raiders' coach Dave Vestal had confidence in him and most importantly, Cook had confidence in himself.

The latter capped his first regular season as a starter by passing for 173 yards and a touchdown and added two rushing scores in SV's 27-0 win over host Shaler Friday night.

The victory sealed a fourth-place finish in the Northern Eight Conference standings and a WPIAL playoff berth for the Raiders (5-4, 4-3).

Cook completed 16 of his 23 pass attempts and found six different receivers in the win.

“We feel we can score against anybody,” he said. “We're a high-powered offense and have a lot of confidence entering the playoffs. Our offensive line has played well in front of me. I've been sacked just five times this year. Not many teams can say that.”

Shaler used a 38-yard kickoff return by Jake Hartman and a 27-yard gain by quarterback Hunter Zukowski to move into field-goal range on the game's opening drive, but Anthony Friel's 42-yard attempt fell short.

It was the beginning of a sequence during which the Titans (2-7, 2-5) failed to take advantage of early opportunities.

Hank Royal fumbled away SV's first possession near midfield and on Shaler's first play of the ensuing drive, Zukowski went for the end zone and wideout Killian Bozzo.

But Mark Smith was waiting and intercepted the pass for a touchback.

“We stuck Mark on No. 10 (Bozzo) all night,” said Vestal. “We knew he could do the job and he was motivated to lock him down all night. That was a big matchup.”

The Raiders responded with a 15-play, 80-yard drive for the game's first score. On a 3rd-and-12 from the Shaler 22, Cook hit Royal with a screen pass. Royal broke a pair of tackles near the middle of the field, then cut to the sideline and into the end zone.

A bad snap on the extra-point attempt kept the score at 6-0, but the Raiders were off and running.

Cook scored on a pair of 1-yard runs, the second with just 57 seconds left before halftime and SV's lead was pushed to 20-0.

The Raiders have been frustrated by penalties for much of the season and Friday was no different. They were flagged nine times for 110 yards. Five of the penalties were personal foul infractions. Shaler had three personal fouls and one unsportsmanlike conduct foul called on them.

“We have to clean some things up,” said Vestal. “We shouldn't retaliate when the other team takes the first shot. We need to have more poise than that.”

Seneca Valley's defense earned its second straight shutout, surrendering just 141 yards to the Titans in the process.

Payton Skalos and Corbin Kessler joined Smith in intercepting Zukowski.

Kessler scored on a 9-yard run in the third quarter.

The Raiders will learn their first-round playoff opponent at Monday's pairings meeting.