Demolition zone
JACKSON TWP — Hempfield may have had ideas of a huge upset in the first round of the WPIAL Quad A football playoffs.
What the Spartans got instead was a demolition job courtesy of host Seneca Valley.
The Raiders' defense allowed Hempfield just 21 yards of offense in the first half, forcing the Spartans into four three-and-outs in that span, paving the way to a 50-20 victory Friday at NexTier Stadium.
SV (9-1) will face Mt. Lebanon, a 31-7 winner over Butler, in the quarterfinals Friday at a site and time to be determined.
“The goal is to advance and we're happy to be moving on,” said Raiders coach Don Holl.
Seneca's offense was clicking right from the start, beginning the game with a nine-play, 65-yard drive capped with Forrest Barnes' 1-yard touchdown run. It was the first of four scores in the game for Barnes, who ran for 104 yards and added 95 receiving.
Jon Dorogy had 45 rushing yards and scored once in the first half while quarterback Jordan Brown ran six times for 33 yards and added an 11-yard score.
By the end of the first half, Brown had surpassed 5,000 passing yards in his varsity career. He now has 5,018.
“When you are making the right reads and getting the ball to the right players, it looks pretty,” said Holl. “I thought Jordan did a great job of that tonight.”
Hempfield, which scored all of its points and gained most of its yards in the second half after the Raiders' reserves had taken the field, had an opportunity to make things interesting midway through the first period.
With the Raiders leading 6-0, Hempfield defensive back DeLorian Day intercepted Brown's pass and set his team up at the Raiders' 37.
Two plays later, the Spartans had a first-and-goal at SV's 9, but quarterback Ty George was forced to retreat 20 yards to recover a bad shotgun snap. A sack on third down by Raider defensive end Zarian Prenatt and another bad snap turned the ball over on downs to the Raiders.
“We had to move a tackle to center because of an injury,” said Hempfield coach Rich Bowen. “In this (spread) style of offense, that hurts.”
Prenatt tallied seven tackles in the first half. His second sack of the game came early in the second quarter when he was in the process of tackling George in the end zone. The signal caller got rid of the ball, but was flagged for intentional grounding, handing a safety to the Raiders and a sack to the 6-foot, 200-pound lineman.
“We knew they were going to pass the ball a lot,” Prenatt said of the Spartans (4-6). “My job was to get in and harass the quarterback and I did that. With me being a senior, this was my last home game and I was giving it my all.”
The Raiders led 43-0 at halftime. Mason Dehart's 44-yard scoring run in the third quarter capped the scoring for the home team.
Day, a wide receiver on offense, came in to take snaps in the Wildcat formation, from which he scored on runs of 74 and 88 yards in the final 16 minutes.
