JACKSON TWP — Seneca Valley picked a good time to grab its only lead of the game.

Oliver Philogene took a pitch from Jordan Brown and the speedy wideout scored from five yards out, giving the Raiders a 26-21 lead over Shaler with just 33 seconds left in the fourth quarter of a crucial Northern Seven football clash Friday night at NexTier Stadium.

Brown then found tight end Ryan McCauley for a two-point conversion pass and the Raiders defense thwarted Shaler's last gasp drive to pull out a 28-21 victory.

“This is the kind of win that allows you to do some things in this conference,” said SV coach Don Holl.

The Raiders' final drive lasted seven plays and covered 49 yards. Before Philogene's score, halfback Forrest Barnes picked up one first down receiving and one rushing to set SV up at Shaler's 18.

Brown then found wideout Ryan Conn for a 13-yard gain down to the 5.

Following a timeout, Brown faked a handoff to Barnes, then pitched to Philogene, who also caught three passes for 49 yards in the game.

“I didn't know I was getting the ball until I saw Jordan pull it away from Forrest,” Philogene said. “It feels amazing to help the team out in crunch time.”

It was the first conference defeat for Shaler (5-2, 3-1).

“We just shot ourselves in the foot too many times tonight and Seneca Valley is a good enough team to take advantage of that,” said Shaler coach Neil Gordon.

The Titans had a chance to run out the clock late in the fourth quarter, but failed to do so.

After Barnes' 5-yard touchdown run cut Shaler's lead to 21-20, kicker Michael Denny's extra-point attempt sailed just outside the left upright.

SV kicked off and Shaler took over at its own 20 with 4:45 left in the game.

Three runs by J.P. Holtz yielded nine yards and the Titans elected to go for a fourth-and-1 from the 29.

Again, the ball went to Holtz, who burst over the left side of the line and rumbled deep into SV territory. But a holding penalty on the Titans nullified the gain and Gordon sent his punt team onto the field on a fourth-and-5.

Troy Witt returned the punt just past midfield, setting up the game-winning drive with 1:54 left on the clock.

“We had played very clean football over the last few weeks,” said Gordon, “but we had some costly penalties tonight.”

Holl was confident his offense would get another shot after the missed extra point.

“There was a lot of time left and we had all three of our timeouts,” he said. “I had faith in our kids on defense that they could get the ball back for us.”

A game predicted to be high-scoring featured just two first-half touchdowns.

Shaler quarterback Ryan Mincher found Bill Reinheimer for a 25-yard scoring strike with 4:50 left in the first half.

Brown completed just five of 11 passes for 35 yards and two interceptions in the first half, but did get the Raiders (5-2, 2-2) on the board with a 38-yard scoring run late in the second quarter.

“It was one of those nights,” Holl said. “We put our defense in some bad spots and were probably lucky to have the game tied at halftime.”

Shaler's two touchdowns in the second half both came via 2-yard runs by Holtz.

Sandwiched in between was Barnes' first score of the night, a 20-yard jaunt that tied the game at 14 with 11:24 left in the fourth quarter.

The Raiders travel to North Hills next Friday.