Keeping the prize
JACKSON TWP — A short field guarantees nothing, but the Seneca Valley football team certainly took advantage of it Friday night.
Of the Raiders' five scoring drives against Butler, three of them began in Golden Tornado territory and another started near midfield at SV's 43-yard line.
It all added up to a 35-17 win for the Raiders in their regular-season finale at NexTier Stadium.
With the victory, SV secured third place in the Northern Six Conference and claimed the Butler Eagle Traveling Trophy for the third straight year.
Leading 14-10 at halftime, SV scored the next 21 points to take a 35-10 advantage midway through the final quarter.
"Butler's kids played hard," said Raiders coach Don Holl. "(Tornado coach Jeff McAnallen) had his team ready, but in the second half, I think we just wore them down."
The first of SV's three second-half scores came after Butler was forced to punt from deep within its own end.
A 12-yard return by Chris Dorogy gave SV the ball at the Butler 20 and fullback Randy Morris ran for a score on the next play.
Quarterback Donny Holl and Jack Graham added scoring runs in the fourth quarter for the Raiders, the second of which capped a drive that began at Butler's 48-yard line.
"I told our kids I thought this would be a close game tonight," said McAnallen. "What it came down to was them finding the weaknesses in our defense and going after them.
"We've got a lot of young kids playing, and when you've got a sophomore covering a senior, it's tough," he added.
SV opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 12-play, 89-yard drive that Holl finished off with a 6-yard scoring pass to tight end Andrew Smith.
The Golden Tornado (0-9, 0-5) answered with a long drive of their own.Beginning at their 31, the Tornado got a 14-yard run from Cole Harvey and, three plays later, the senior caught a 27-yard pass from quarterback Jordan Lumley to set up Brian Jendesky's 7-yard scoring run early in the second quarter.SV's Troy Witt was on the receiving end of a 3-yard pass from Holl later in the quarter that made the score 14-7.The drive was set up when SV forced Butler to punt from its own 8 and the Raiders took over at the Tornado 39.McAnallen then watched his team march 75 yards in 11 plays to set up Colin Williamson's 22-yard field goal to make it a 14-10 game at halftime.During the drive, Lumley completed a 17-yard pass on third down to Jarrod Oesterling to push Butler down to the SV 11."There were times when our offense looked good tonight," said McAnallen. "Cole, I think he's got more injuries than he has body parts, but he played hard and I thought Lumley did a good job."Jake Thompson closed out the scoring with a 2-yard run with 4:34 left in the game to cut his team's deficit to 35-17, but SV's Jordan Glaser recovered the ensuing onside kick.Three players who should fill key roles in the Raiders' backfield in next week's playoff game — Morris, Witt and Graham — combined for 19 carries for 125 yards."Those guys are all working hard in practice and we're going to need all of them to do their part," said coach Holl.SV (5-4, 3-2) will learn its WPIAL first-round playoff opponent on Monday.
