Schools
Raiders Football Team Defeats Rams in Fourth Quarter Rally
Seneca Valley pulls off a come-from-behind victory over rival Pine-Richland.
Seneca Valley opened Friday's game against Pine-Richland with a bang—and some points.
The Raiders defeated the rival Rams by a score of 29-21 in a game that came down to the last minutes.
SV scored on the opening kickoff drive when junior quarterback Jordan Brown took one in for a touchdown.
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After a Troy Bommer interception, running back Troy Witt ran in another touchdown with a 42 seconds left in the first quarter. After dding kicker Michael Denny's extra points, Seneca Valley was up 14-0.
The Rams' Brock Baranowski wasn't going to settle for that. With 21 seconds left in the quarter, he made a 71-yard-run to put the Rams on the scoreboard. Matt Engle nailed the extra point. The score at the end of the first quarter: 14-7.
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The Raiders became their own worst enemies with a rash of penalties, including one that caused a touchdown by Witt to be called back to the 28-yard-line. Forrest Barnes would rack up another six points for the Raiders, but a failed conversion looked as though it would come back to haunt them.
The next two big plays of the half came from a 90-yard-run by Baranowski from the Raider kickoff and a 65-yard-pass play late in the quarter by P-R quarterback Austin Whipple. Both resulted in touchdowns, putting the Rams in the lead at the end of the half, 21-20.
Pine-Richland recovered a loose ball in the third quarter, but was unable to capitalize on the play. Seneca's Joe Duggan, Brad Gresock, Christopher Dahlstrom, Ryan McCauley, Gabe Edwards, John Dorogy and A. J. Gilmore made key contributions to the defensive battle.
Steve Szelong, the Ram's leading tackler, and David Menke, who leads the Rams in sacks, wreaked havoc on the Raider offense. But Brown still was able to complete key passes to Witt, Barnes, Ryan Conn, Dorogy. No one scored in the quarter.
A huge carry by SV wide receiver Oliver Philogene put the Raiders in position for a successful 28-yard field goal by Denny, with 4:11 left in the game. A big hit by Duggan on Whipple allowed Seneca Valley to take possession of the ball.
With 90 seconds left in the game, Brown connected with Witt for his second touchdown of the game. P-R's Baranowski blocked the extra point.
Final score: 29-21
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