Undefeated Raiders Ready for Erie McDowell

 football coach Don Holl didn’t need a scouting report or a stack of game videos to form his first impression of the Raiders’ next opponent, Erie McDowell.

Holl coached Erie Cathedral Prep until last season, and developed a working knowledge of the challenges the Erie McDowell Trojans give opponents while building a 5-1 record against them.

“I know a lot of their guys, and a lot of their families, and I’m very familiar with their football team as well,” Holl said.

Holl returns to his former football home turf when Seneca Valley (2-0) opens WPIAL Class AAAA Northern Seven Conference play at Erie McDowell (2-0) tonight at 7 p.m.

Holl, a 1984 Erie Cathedral Prep graduate, led the Ramblers to a 36-14 record as head coach and won three District 10-AAAA titles.

“I’m very familiar with all aspects of their team. They (Erie McDowell) were our primary rival my first three years at Erie,” Holl said. “We had some overtime games and some close finishes.”

The Raiders football team will leave school early Friday, around 2 p.m., for the two-hour bus ride. They’ll stop for dinner after about an hour, the coach said, to give the players a chance to stretch and get off the bus.

Seneca Valley has outscored opponents 89-7, including in the season opener and a in another non-conference game last week.

“It sounds like coachspeak, but there’s no doubt that it’s been a group effort so far,” Holl said. “We talk about everybody on our defense being one-eleventh, and hunting (the football) together and swarming to the ball. The most encouraging thing to see is how many of our jerseys are at the football at the end of each play on the film. We have a lot of guys playing hard for six seconds. Usually you have success over there when that happens.”

Raiders quarterback Jordan Brown threw two touchdown passes against the Foxes, including a 27-yard scoring toss to junior wideout Ryan Conn, and a 35-yard strike to junior running back Jonathan Dorogy.

“Obviously, we’re very pleased because we’re playing very hard, and that’s the result you get,” Holl said. “Our defense was challenged a couple times early in the game, and they kind of bowed their backs and didn’t let them score and that’s the mark of a good defensive team.”

Seneca Valley also had a big play on special teams when Dorogy scored on a 97-yard kickoff return.

Seneca Valley holds an edge over Erie McDowell in scoring average (44.5 to 26.5) after two games, but the Trojans are coming off a 28-0 victory last week over Baldwin.

“At the end of the day, we’re excited to be 2-0, but there’s a long season ahead of us and a lot of work left to do,” Holl said. “There’s only so many things you can be after two games, and 2-0 is the best one and we’ll take it.”

Seneca Valley plays its final non-conference game when the Raiders host McKeesport next Friday at 7:30 p.m

Conference play resumes when North Allegheny travels to Seneca Valley on Sept. 30.