JACKSON TWP — Shot after shot bent, sliced and arced toward Butler goalkeeper Anna Voelker and Seneca Valley goalkeeper Jessica Pollaci.

The two juniors answered every challenge.

After 100 minutes, 38 total shots, 25 shots on goal and 25 saves — most of them difficult — the Butler and Seneca Valley girls soccer teams ended up in a 0-0 tie Wednesday night at NexTier Stadium.

The tie, though, might as well have been as a loss for Seneca Valley (10-5-1, 7-2-1), which needed a win to share the Section 1-AAAA championship with Pine-Richland (10-4-2, 8-2).

Butler (9-4-2, 5-3-2) was locked into the third spot regardless of what happened in the section finale.

“It was tough,” said Seneca Valley coach Mark Perry. “I thought in the first half, we had chances to score, but that's been our Achilles' heel. We could have won the section if we would have scored some goals.”

While the offenses pressured and peppered the two keepers all night, it was the defense and the goalies that ended up stealing the show.

Voelker stopped 14 shots and Pollaci had 11 saves.

Few of them were routine.

“I've known Anna for a long time and I've coached her for a long time,” said Butler coach Steve Perri. “Nothing surprises me about her. I'm more surprised when she has a bad game.”

Seneca Valley had the advantage in play for most of the first half, but Butler evened things out somewhat in the second half and in the two overtime periods.

Pollaci made three sensational saves in the first overtime, one of which came sizzling off the foot of Liz Simms and the other off the toe of Brittnie Spithaler.

Voelker had two stellar stops off shots by Jess Frank and Ashley Rea in overtime to preserve the tie.

“I just had to really stay focused,” Voelker said. “I really thought we were going to win there in the first overtime. Sadly we didn't.”

Despite having its spot in the section standings locked, Butler treated this like a playoff match.

The Golden Tornado played to win.

“We wanted to knock them out of a share of the section title,” Voelker said.

In essence, the Tornado did.

Pollaci was disappointed the Raiders couldn't emerge with a win and even considered the tie a defeat.

“I mean, it's a rough loss for us because we really wanted to win the section,” Pollaci said. “No one really thought we could win the section, so coming in second with this brand new team is pretty phenomenal.”

In many ways, Seneca Valley hit rock bottom in the first meeting between the two teams Sept. 26.

The Raiders were shut out 3-0 by the Golden Tornado.

Since that loss, Seneca Valley has gone 4-0-1 and has surrendered just one goal.

“We realized our attitude needed to change and the way we played needed to change,” Pollaci said. “If we wanted to win the section and do as well as we had been doing in the past, we needed to pick our heads up and do better.”

And here Seneca Valley is, second in the section and heading to the playoffs again with nine new starters.

All 11 starters against Butler were underclassmen.

“In the beginning of the season, we didn't think we had a chance,” Pollaci said. “At all.”

“If people would have told us early in the year we'd be where we are right now and had a chance (to win the section) in this game, we would have taken it,” Perry said.

This match was a good playoff primer for Butler, which will have another one Monday at home against unbeaten Canon-McMillan on senior night.

It also pleased Perri that his team was able to put to bed the horrors of past results at Seneca Valley.

“We've had horrific scores playing in this place,” Perri said. “We've had 6-0, 5-0 (matches). We come in here every year, last game, needing a win to make the playoffs and never gotten it. Finally we came in here with no weight on our shoulder and could just play.

“There's some very good teams that are going to be in this playoff,” Perri added. “I think, and I may be wrong, these are two of the top seven or eight teams (in Class AAAA). It would be a shame if one of these teams have to play the top dogs from somewhere else because both teams deserve (to have a higher seed).”