Keep it in the county
One down, and Don Holl hopes there's many more to come.
The first-year Seneca Valley football coach picked up his first win with the Raiders in last week's 22-7 triumph over visiting Baldwin.
With the Northern Six Conference slate beginning Oct. 2 at North Allegheny, Holl is looking for his team to keep progressing when the Raiders visit Knoch (0-3) at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
"The kids are growing up on the job," said Holl. "We need to take every game, every snap to get better."
The Raiders' first score against Baldwin came when senior linebacker Luke Mueller returned a second quarter fumble 46 yards for a touchdown.
"We've made a ton of great defensive plays this season, a lot of tackles behind the line of scrimmage," Holl said. "But when you lose, those plays seem to get lost in the shuffle."
Knoch coach Mike King is continuing to run the team during a teachers strike in the South Butler School District but is without two of his assistant coaches.
"The rest of us personally miss those guys," King said. "I've been blessed here with tremendous assistant coaches. They're sound role models and great human beings. You just like having people like that around your kids.
"But we've told the kids we don't want any drama here. We can't be distracted by things we can't control. At practice, it's been business as usual, and that's the type of kid we have," he added.
Last Friday, SV (1-2) held Baldwin's triple-option offense to 81 yards on 32 carries.
"We're getting to the point where the kids are expecting to make plays on defense," added Holl. "It doesn't matter how you score points, as long as you score them."
The Seneca Valley offense received a spark from sophomore halfback Troy Witt, who rushed 12 times for 68 yards. His 9-yard scoring run late in the third quarter put SV ahead for good.
"I don't know if he will end up starting, but I do know that he's a big part of what we want to do moving forward," said Holl. "He deserves a chance to make plays."
Holl knows that Knoch's 0-3 record is not indicative of the Knights' capabilities.
The Knights lost their first two games to Hopewell and Blackhawk by a combined score of 82-13.
But in last week's 20-17 loss at Peters Township, Knoch held a 17-13 lead until a late Indians touchdown decided the game."I thought our team came a long way last week," King said. "We played with a lot of guts and our technical stuff was much better.""They're a physical team," said Holl. "They battled Peters Township and they really looked like a different team from the first two weeks."The Knights made a quarterback change last week, inserting sophomore Ky Kenyon behind center and moving Jake McTighe to a slotback position."Jake's effective in a Slash type of role because he can do many things," King said. "Ky's got a good head on his shoulders and good wisdom on the football field."He doesn't have the size Jake has and Jake has a stronger arm, but Ky puts nice touch on the ball and he enjoys the role of playing quarterback. He likes having the game put on his shoulders."Knoch found a running game as well last week. Andrew Rumburg-Goodlin had 29 carries for 168 yards and two touchdowns."Andrew had a baptism under fire with his first two games as a varsity tailback being against Hopewell and Blackhawk, two great defenses," King said. "He's adapting to the varsity game being a little faster. He's making sharper cuts and following his blocks. He could be a good one for us.'The Raiders defeated Knoch 41-20 last year at NexTier Stadium.Friday's game will mark the first time Knoch will have hosted the Raiders since 1986, when the Knights won 7-0 on their way to the WPIAL Class AAA semifinals.
