WARRENDALE — According to Seneca Valley hockey coach Denis Kirstein, it was imperative that the Raiders jump out to a fast start against North Hills Friday.

But Kirstein couldn't have expected them to score so much so quickly.

The Raiders piled up five first-period goals, the first three in a 1-minute, 21-second span, to rout the Indians 11-0 in PIHL Class AAA action at BladeRunners.

The win gave Seneca Valley (15-5-1) a perfect Section 2 Southwest Division record. The Raiders already had secured the first section title in the program's history.

"It was Senior Night and I'm sure that had the seniors excited, and the juniors, too," said Kirstein. "I wanted to emphasize a quick start. The last time we played North Hills (a 7-2 win Jan. 25), it was 1-1, then they scored but it was waved off. We could have been down 2-1 after one period, but we weren't.

"North Hills is a tough team. It was a tough game for them. It was Senior Night, they had to come here on a Friday night and they were missing one of their top scorers (Derek Belke)," Kirstein added.

Before the game was six minutes old, the Raiders held a 3-0 advantage.

Noah Wallace, Kevin Rohm and Sam Jarrett each tallied a goal past Indians goalie Ryan Gayso, the latter with 9:23 to go in the first period.

Michael Pietandrea had a goal and Jarrett tacked on another with 23 seconds left to send the Raiders on their way.

"We have six or seven guys, our main scoring guys, but we have other guys who chip in," said senior Tyler Mesisca. "Our third and fourth line guys have been playing well."

Things didn't get any better for North Hills (3-17) in the second period as Joe Natoli, Mesisca and Bronson Dodd also tallied scores.

Mesisca's goal started the mercy rule clock with 7:18 to play in the second period.

Dodd's goal came just 17 seconds after Mesisca's.

Despite the running clock, the Raiders still slipped three more goals in during the third period as Tayler Wagner, Mesisca and Tyler Rose all hit the net.

The Raiders are 3-0-1 in their past four games, a 2-2 tie to Wheeling Park was the lone blip, and 5-1-1 over the past seven.

Still, Kirstein hopes his team can turn it up a notch as the playoffs loom.

"What I really like is the first time the team has gone unbeaten in section and won its first section title," Kirstein said. "That is huge. The section championship gets masked because of a couple of losses.

"Last year, we were 12-5-5, so there's an improvement this year. You look at our roster and see we should have the experience with all those seniors (14).

"Can we get serious again? We better," Kirstein added.

Notes: Wagner, Rohm, Cody Siegfried, Logan Pfeffer and Sean Sokolowski had two assists apiece. ... Seneca Valley goalie Ryan Schutte made nine saves in earning the shutout while Gayso had 27. ... The Indians were 0-for-6 on the power play, the Raiders 0-for-2. ... Seneca Valley will wrap up the regular season against Norwin at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.