Devils be gone
WEXFORD — Crunch time belonged to Seneca Valley.
The Raiders outscored Mt. Lebanon 12-0 in the final quarter — including nine points in a span of 17 seconds — to prevail 32-13 in a WPIAL Quad A quarterfinal football playoff Friday at North Allegheny's Newman Stadium.
The victory sends Seneca Valley (10-1) to the district semifinals for the first time since 1997. The Raiders will face North Allegheny, a 42-14 winner over Bethel Park, Friday at a site and time to be determined.
“We have a lot of guys with a lot of pride,” said Seneca Valley coach Don Holl. “They performed like champions tonight.”
Chad Izenas' 22-yard field goal gave the Raiders a 10-point lead with 9:26 left in the game, but his 34-yard attempt later in the fourth was blocked and the Blue Devils took over at their own 5-yard line with 5:14 left on the clock.
On second down, Mt. Lebanon quarterback Tyler Roth dropped back into his own end zone and was flushed to his left before throwing a desperation pass.
He was flagged for intentional grounding in the end zone and the Raiders were awarded two points thanks to the pressure of Carson Kessler and Tucker Van Dyke.
On the first play after receiving the ensuing free kick, Forrest Barnes broke off his longest run of the night, a 43-yard touchdown run that capped the scoring in a 32-13 win.
The Raiders' defense frustrated the best passing attack in all of WPIAL Quad A, holding Roth to 11-of-31 passing for 141 yards. He threw one touchdown pass and was intercepted twice, once by Jon Dorogy in the first half and again by R.J. McCauley in the second half.
The biggest source of frustration for the Blue Devils (8-3) came in SV territory. Mt. Lebanon reached SV's 30-yard line or deeper five times in the game, but came away with just the 13 points.
“Any time you get near the red zone, you want to score,” said Mt. Lebanon coach Mike Melnyk. “Tyler missed a few throws down there, but I don't think that's why we lost. We just got beat by a better team tonight.”
“Our guys made a point to go out and get the stops tonight,” said Holl. “Our defensive coaches had a great game plan and the players executed it. We really stifled them tonight.”
SV grabbed a 13-0 lead in the first quarter after quarterback Jordan Brown found McCauley and Dorogy on scoring passes of 5 and 44 yards, respectively. The pass to McCauley came on a fourth-and-goal and capped the Raiders' 14-play drive to begin the game.
Dorogy added an 84-yard touchdown catch late in the second quarter while the Blue Devils had to settle for two Orfanopoulos field goals in the first half and trailed 20-6 at the break.
Roth hit Mike Briercheck with a 12-yard scoring toss on a fourth-down play in the third quarter that made it a one-score game at 20-13, but the Blue Devils would not score again.
Brown ended the game 12-of-14 passing for 233 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions for the Raiders.Barnes carried the ball 28 times for 137 yards while Dorogy had three catches for 155 yards and two touchdowns.Seneca Valley 32, Mt. Lebanon 13Mt. Lebanon 0 6 7 0 — 13Seneca Valley 13 7 0 12 — 32ML SV14 First Downs 1625-71 Rushes-Yards 44-185141 Passing Yards 23311-31-2 Comp.-Att.-Int 12-14-0212 Total Yards 4183-1 Fumbles-Lost 1-15-40 Penalty Yards 10-93First QuarterSV — R.J. McCauley 5 pass from Jordan Brown (run failed), 5:50SV — Jon Dorogy 44 pass from Brown (Chad Izenas kick), :32Second QuarterML — Dimitri Orfanopoulos 26 field goal, 10:17SV — Dorogy 84 pass from Brown (Izenas kick), 2:37ML — Orfanopoulos 37 field goal, :23Third QuarterML — Mike Briercheck 12 pass from Tyler Roth (Orfanopoulos kick), 6:04Fourth QuarterSV — Izenas 22 field goal, 9:26SV — Roth intentional grounding in end zone, 5:04SV — Forrest Barnes 43 run (Izenas kick), 4:47Individual StatisticsRushing: Mt. Lebanon, Doran Graham 7-30, Tim Briercheck 4-17, Mike Briercheck 3-12, Jake Rolfsen 2-4, Tyler Roth 9-8. Seneca Valley, Jon Dorogy 4-42, Forrest Barnes 28-137, Jordan Brown 8-13, Mason Dehart 1-(-1), Team 3-(-6).Passing: Mt. Lebanon, Tyler Roth 11-31-141-2. Seneca Valley, Jordan Brown 12-14-233-0.Receiving: Mt. Lebanon, Troy Apke 3-33, Dimitri Orfanopoulos 1-18, Mark Buda 1-7, Tim Briercheck 1-2, Mike Briercheck 4-51, Matt McGraw 1-30. Seneca Valley, Forrest Barnes 2-9, R.J. McCauley 4-43, Jon Dorogy 3-155, Paul Hudanick 2-19, Ryan Conn 1-7.
