BUTLER TWP - Holding the trophy Friday night would mean a lot to Butler football coach Garry Cathell when the Golden Tornado travel to Seneca Valley for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff in a battle of 0-8 teams with no playoff aspirations.

"But there's always something to play for," Cathell said. "If we get the trophy, it means we won a game, won a game on the road and won the (Butler) Eagle Traveling Trophy for a second straight year."

The Eagle Traveling Trophy is awarded each year to the winner of the Butler-Seneca Valley game. The Tornado have never won the trophy in successive years, though Butler defeated the Raiders in 1992 and 1993.

The trophy made its debut in 1993.

"They're young and have a lot of young kids playing just like we do," Cathell said. "We parallel each other in a lot of ways."

Both teams allow more than 30 points per game on average. Both have trouble scoring, as Butler averages 13 points per game and Seneca Valley 7.5. Both quarterbacks - Nick Monteleone and Marshall Lee - have thrown three touchdown passes and 10 interceptions.

"A lot of that comes from having to try to force plays when you're behind," Cathell said of the latter statistic.

Seneca Valley scored 30 points against Mt. Lebanon. Besides that, the Raiders have managed just four touchdowns in seven games.

"It's tough when you don't have established, experienced players at the skill positions," Cathell said. "Look at North Allegheny and North Hills.

"When North Allegheny was missing a few key experienced guys early in the season, they couldn't win. A couple of guys come back and now they're winning by 40 points. North Hills was winning big early, the (quarterback Ryan) Lehmeier kid goes down and now they're losing.

"We're talking about a couple of kids gone part of the time there. We haven't had that type of experienced skilled kid all year," Cathell added.

Butler will be doing without a few more players Friday. Lineman Adam Pritts has an injured ankle and will miss the final two games. Safety Jesse Binus has a shoulder injury and is questionable.

Also questionable for Friday's game are tight end Josh Wachter with a concussion and slotback-cornerback Bobby Ridley with a shoulder problem.

All four of those players are seniors.

Randy Craig, a 260-pound sophomore, or Scott Shaffer will replace Pritts. Sophomore Adam Zaccari will see more action at cornerback, and sophomore Eric Petanovich might replace Binus.

Noah Hartung will move to tight end if Wachter can't play, with sophomore Jordan Roycroft filling the void at wideout.

Bob Alexander needs 353 yards in the final two games to reach 1,000. Monteleone already has thrown for 1,005 yards.

"Bobby still has a chance for 1,000 yards, even though he sat out one game, didn't start our first game, played only the first half at Hempfield and had just five carries last week," Cathell said. "That tells me he's been pretty good when he's had the chance to go out there and do his thing."

Monteleone's top receivers have been Hartung (20 catches for 241 yards), Wachter (16-264) and Ridley (10-217).

"How quickly Nick has developed has been a pleasant surprise this season," Cathell said. "He's a playmaker and so is Bobby. We just have to develop more consistency with them."