Raiders Ready to Prove Themselves, Take on McKeesport

could help the rest of the WPIAL solve a mystery tonight.

The Raiders next football opponent, McKeesport, remains a mystery to many observers.

Some view unbeaten McKeesport as an obvious playoff contender after the Tigers scored 58 points against Connellsville last week.

Others are waiting for more evidence the Tigers are for real. Their first two non-conference victories this season came against St. Joan of Arc from Ontario, Canada, and winless Altoona.

Seneca Valley (2-1, 0-1) will provide the strongest test so far for McKeesport (3-0, 1-0) in a WPIAL Class AAAA non-conference game at 7:30 tonight at Nextier Stadium.

All Seneca Valley coach Don Holl knows at this point is that McKeesport has dominated its first three opponents.

“They’ve done all of that,” Holl said. “We know McKeesport has a great tradition and an outstanding program, and we’re anxious to see how we measure up.

“We know our kids are going to play hard and we know their kids are going to play hard,” he said. “So it should make for a great western Pennsylvania Friday night football game.”

In addition to its usual cast of strong running backs and quick perimeter athletes, McKeesport has added some new twists on offense, Holl said. The Tigers have installed a spread-style passing game that helps them try to create matchups.

“Defensively, they are the typical McKeesport team, very athletic, very physical, and they run to the football,” Holl said.

Last week, Seneca Valley opened WPIAL Class AAAA Northern Seven Conference play in a game that was a lot closer than it appeared.

The Raiders tied the game, 29-29, in the fourth quarter on David Hall’s four-yard touchdown run and Mike Denny’s extra-point kick. Denny also put the ball through the uprights on a 32-yard field goal earlier in the fourth quarter.

However, Erie McDowell’s Khrye Drayer scored on an eight-yard run with 33 seconds remaining in regulation play, and Greg Garmon tacked on a meaningless touchdown with four seconds to play when he intercepted a desperation pass and returned it 51 yards.

“It probably should have gone to overtime, but quite honestly, we had multiple chances to win it in the first half,” Holl said. “We were up by a score and could have taken a two- or three-score lead. We had three possessions inside their 20-yard line and didn’t do anything with them.

“It was a very disappointing loss, because we did enough to win it, just not at the right time,” he said. “We didn’t score in the red zone (inside the 20-yard line) and we gave up long (touchdown) drives at the end of each half that were real backbreakers.”

Seneca Valley quarterback Jordan Brown completed 24 of 40 passes for 288 yards against Erie McDowell, and Raiders running back Forrest Barnes ran for 111 yards on 25 carries.

“Forrest Barnes is very talented and it’s one of those things where he has to get opportunities to touch the ball, because he’s always productive when he gets the ball,” Holl said. “Jordan (Brown) made a lot of great plays and a lot of great throws, and he made some outstanding runs.

“It was just unfortunate we couldn’t find a way to win that game, being a section game and all,” he said. “But that’s in the rearview mirror, because we’ve got some tough work against McKeesport.”

Seneca Valley has outscored opponents by a combined 118-51 after three games, includingin the season opener and a in another non-conference game two weeks ago.

Nothern Seven Conference play resumes when defending Class AAAA state champion North Allegheny (3-0) travels to Seneca Valley on Sept. 30.