WEXFORD— With 25 minutes left in the first half, Seneca Valley senior midfielder Chas Elliott was helped to the sidelines following an on-field collision.

He wound up hurting Franklin Regional more than himself.

Elliott returned to action in time to score the only goal of the game — a bullet into the right corner of the net — with 21 seconds left in the first half. The Raiders surprised the second-seeded Panthers, 1-0, in a WPIALClass AAA boys soccer quarterfinal Saturday at North Allegheny's Newman Stadium.

Seventh-seeded Seneca Valley (13-6) will now face 10th-seed Fox Chapel (16-3-1) in a semifinal game at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Newman Stadium.

Fox Chapel defeated the Raiders, 2-1, back on Sept. 4.

"Chas collided with a guy and they hit knee to knee,"SVcoach George Williams said of Elliott's injury, which forced a clock stoppage. "Impact like that can be pretty painful."

After a brief respite on the bench, Elliott was back in the game.

His goal occurred on an innocent looking play. Two Franklin Regional players converged on a loose ball about 20 yards in front of their net.

Neither one cleared it, however, and Elliott drilled it past sprawling goalkeeper Spencer Jones.

"Our guys had a costly miscommunicatioon there ... and their guy buried that shot,"Franklin Regional coach Rand Hudson said.

"They were kind of bobbling the ball around, having trouble with it,"Elliott said. "It was nearly the end of the half, so I just kicked at it."

The goal was Elliott's fifth of the season. Though it was the team's only goal of the day, the Raiders had plenty of other opportunities.

Both teams had 10 shots on net, but Seneca Valley had the majority of quality scoring chances. The Raiders also had seven corner kicks to the Panthers' three.

Prior to Elliott's goal, Austin Smith misfired on a free kick from 20 yards out, then chipped a shot over the net from right in front.

Drew Williams took a penalty kick from 41 yards out, the ball winding up loose in front of the net. Kevin Andreone rolled the rebound just wide of the corner.

An Andreone header skipped off the hands of goalkeeper Jones, deflecting wide of the net with 4:37 left in the half.

"I picked up a few more gray hairs the way this game was going,"Williams admitted. "You always get nervous when you only have a one-goal lead.

"They were one throw-in or cross play away from tying it up."

Andreone missed two golden chances within the first three ninutes of the second half. He dribbled in alone on Jones from the right side of the goal, but passed the ball toward the middle instead of shooting. He hit the side of the net on a rebound try.

Jon Baron headed the ball over the net with 37:40 left in the game.

"Their goal hurt a lot more because it came with seconds left before the half,"Hudson admitted. "If we go into the locker room 0-0, it's a whole different mind-set. Even if that goal came with 20 minutes left, we'd be OK.

"As it was, our kids were down. We didn't come out and play well to begin the second half. We made the playoffs last year for the first time in 25 years and lost in the first round. We went a little farther this year, but not far enough."

The Panthers (14-2-3), who allowed only 13 goals all season, did have chances to tie the game late.

But just as he did in SV's 1-0 first-round win over Upper St. Clair, goalkeeper Justin McAtee held firm.

He leaped and punched a shot over the crossbar with 27:14 remaining. McAtee then made a lunging save on Max Witten's shot from directly in front of the net. Witten was set up by midfielder Garrett Laird, who dribbled around three Raider defenders.

"Our keeper has been spectacular these past few games,"Williams said.

"Yeah, both those shots were going in. But when's it 1-0, you can't let anything get behind you,"McAtee said. "The defenders in front of me played a huge part in this win. They've played great all year."

The shutout was Seneca Valley's ninth of the season.