Raiders tame Tigers, earn title shot
No. 1 North Allegheny surprised at home in Class 6A semifinals
Dressed in black, the Seneca Valley student section stood long into the fourth quarter, chanting “We Want Pine!” as rain came down on a frigid evening.
It took eight plays, 75 yards and just under 15 minutes for their football team to beat its scoring total from six weeks ago on this field, against this same opponent.
One touchdown was enough to inject confidence in fifth-seeded Seneca Valley, which swaggered its way to a 31-14 upset of unbeaten, top-ranked North Allegheny in a WPIAL Class 6A semifinal Friday night at Newman Stadium.
The Raiders (9-3) are headed to Heinz Field to play for a championship for the second time in the past three years. And they did it the hard way, bouncing a Tigers team that received a bye into the second round of the six-team bracket.
North Allegheny (10-1) also beat Seneca Valley at home Sept. 28, 10-6, but these Raiders are serving up revenge left and right.
They edged Central Catholic, 15-14, last week in the quarterfinals to avenge a regular-season loss before beating the Tigers to earn a rematch in the WPIAL final next weekend with No. 2-seeded Pine-Richland, which won the first meeting Oct. 19, 21-7.
“I don’t think anybody picked us to be where we are,” second-year Raiders head coach Ron Butschle said. “Which I think has maybe intrinsically motivated some of the guys. It is nice to put your mark on things when people say you can’t.”
Butschle was in full coach-speak mode, insisting they would enjoy the victory for a night, but then he stopped himself.
“Actually, we’re going to enjoy it for a couple days,” Butschle said with a grin. “We’re going to take the weekend and enjoy the heck out of this, then get back to work on Monday.”
North Allegheny scored first, just 41 seconds into the game, with a running touchdown. But Seneca Valley answered on its first possession to make it 7-7. The Raiders would later cap drives of 94 and 91 yards with touchdowns, good for a 1714 lead at halftime.
One-and-done is how it ends for the first North Allegheny team to finish the regular season undefeated since 2012, when the Tigers won the WPIAL and PIAA championships.
Losing their first game in the new-look postseason for Class 6A is not how North Allegheny envisioned things, not after upending defending state champs Pine-Richland for the conference title, 27-7, two weeks ago in its most recent outing.
The Tigers also trailed at halftime in that one, 7-0, but couldn’t mount a second rally in as many games. Perhaps the bye did them more harm than good, but credit Seneca Valley for winning in the trenches, opening holes for senior tailback Jake Mineweaser to rush for 142 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries.
Quarterback Gabe Lawson did plenty of work, too, completing 8 of 13 passes for 161 yards and a touchdown. He added 42 yards and another score on 12 rushes.
Lawson’s touchdown through the air was a fantastic catch by senior wideout Luke Smith, who had a defender draped over him on the left side of the end zone, but bobbled the ball to himself and hauled it in for a 12-yard score. That catch made it 24-14 just five seconds into the fourth quarter. On the next offensive snap for North Allegheny, senior Ryan Kristobak picked off Ben Petschke at midfield. Mineweaser charged from 12 yards out to turn an upset alert into a blowout warning.
Seneca Valley held an opponent to 14 points or fewer for the 10th time in 12 games, showing why it came in allowing only 9.5 points on average, the best mark in the WPIAL’s highest classification.
The Raiders intercepted Petschke twice and were 7 for 8 on third down and 3 for 3 on fourth down, holding the Tigers to 97 yards rushing. If they can find the same second-chance magic against Pine-Richland, they’ll raise the first football trophy in school history.
“That’s what we’ve been calling it,” senior right guard and defensive tackle Drew Robertson said. “The revenge tour.”