JACKSON TWP — The Seneca Valley football coaching staff should have a simple lesson for the upcoming week of practice.

Players need to make better decisions.

The Raiders were undone by self-inflicted wounds in a 38-21 non-conference loss to Moon Friday night at NexTier Stadium.

“I don't care how good of a team you have, you can't have the number of penalties and situational penalties we had,” Seneca Valley coach Ron Butschle said. “We have to be able to get off the field. Penalties are a lack of maturity and that's on me as a coach, the performance.”

Seneca Valley was flagged for four personal foul/unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the first half and finished the game with 140 penalty yards.

Leading 7-3 in the first quarter, the Raiders appeared headed for another score. Brandon Ross took a hand-off from Graham Hancox and raced 18 yards to the endzone. Ross' score was called back for a holding penalty. Moon defensive back Taite Beachy stopped the drive two plays later by intercepting a Hancox pass in the endzone.

“We were trying to get a stop and slow them down,” Tigers coach Ryan Linn said. “That penalty on that touchdown run that called back was huge. It slowed things down and stopped their momentum. Taite, that was the first snaps he's taken on defense in four years.”

The Tigers (1-0) took the lead for good by going 80 yards in eight plays following Beachy's interception. Dante Docchio hauled in a 3-yard pass from Tyler McGowan with 8 minutes, 10 seconds left before halftime to put Moon ahead 10-7.

After a three-and-out from Seneca Valley, Moon responded with another long touchdown drive.

The Tigers converted a fourth-and-six on the Raiders' 47 to extend the drive and Jeremiah Dean ended the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run.

Kai West cut the Tigers' lead to 17-14 with an 83-yard kick return following Dean's touchdown.

Moon snuck another touchdown in right before half when Sleva, who finished with a game-high 118 rushing yards, scored on a 2-yard run with 22 seconds left in the half to put the Tigers up 24-14 going into the break.

Moon, which primarily ran the Wildcat after halftime, finished with 290 rushing yards and grinded the clock late.

“We had the kids back where we could do it again,” said Linn of running the Wildcat. “We were able to get three, four, five yards. We may break one, but if not we can control the clock and allow the kids who are cramping up to recover.”

Things had started well for Seneca Valley (0-1). Hancox completed his first six passes, including five on the Raiders' 55-yard, game-opening scoring drive. Nolan Dworek scored on a 20-yard run to give Seneca Valley its only lead, 7-0, with 8:49 left in the first quarter.

The Raiders offense shutdown after the first possession. After collecting 55 yards on its scoring drive, Seneca Valley finished the game with 158 yards of total offense.

The Raiders scored for the final time with 4 minutes remaining, when Hancox found Ross on a 5-yard pass.

Butschle believes the Raiders got a strong lesson in what the team needs to do to win.

It will be up to everyone to show they learned from this week's mistakes.

“We scored twice, but we took points off the board,” Butschle said. “We took one step forward and two steps back, you can't win like that. That's my job as a coach to fix those kinds of things.”

Moon 3 21 7 7 — 38 Seneca Valley 7 7 0 7 — 21 First Quarter

SV — Nolan Dworek 20 run (Camden Bush kick), 8:49

M — Jacob Wieland 39 field goal, 2:19

Second Quarter

M — Dante Docchio 3 pass from Tyler McGowan (Wieland mkicjk), 8:10

M — Jeremiah Dean 4 rin (Wielansd kick), 3:55

SV — Kai West 83 kick return (Bush kick), 3:41

M — Dylan Sleva 2 run (Wieland ick), :22 Third Quarter

M — Sleva 4 run ((Wieland kick), 9:04

Fourth Quarter

M — Ryan Hazen 3 run (Wieland kick), 7:25

SV — Brandon Ross 5 pass friom Graham Hancox (Bush kick), 4:00

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Moon, Dylan Sleva 11-118, Jeremiah Dean 10-88, Tyler McGowan 8-33, Ian Foster 6-21, Joe Cotton 6-25, Ryan Hazen 2-5. Seneca Valley, Graham Hancox 6-31, Nolan Dworek 6-25, Tyler Yurich 3-17.

Passing: Moon, Tyler McGowan 9-14-64-0, Jacob Wieland 1-1-10-0. Seneca Valley, Graham Hancox 8-14-87-1.

Receiving: Moon, Jeremiah Dean 5-30, Taite Beachy 2-26, Ben Bladel 1-5, FJalen Broxie 1-10, Dante Docchio 1-3. Seneca Valley, Brandon Ross 3-39, Aiddenm Lyczek 2-30, Jacob Rape 2-26, Luke Lawson 1-2.