Pine-Richland Survives Test From Seneca Valley

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It would’ve been easy for the Pine-Richland football team to look past Seneca Valley in anticipation to their Conference Championship matchup next week at North Allegheny.

On Senior Night, the Rams made sure that didn’t happen as their stout defense led them to a 21-7 win to keep them undefeated in Class 6A.

The Raiders defense did a good job of keeping them in the game, allowing no more than a touchdown in a quarter to what is usually one of the top offenses in the league, but they couldn’t get anything going on their end.

Pine-Richland played from in front since the first quarter when junior Luke Meckler broke free for a 92-yard touchdown run. It looked like that would be the score at halftime but the Rams found the end zone one more time with 6.2 seconds remaining in the half. Sophomore Cole Spencer pounded it in from a yard out for the 14-0 halftime lead.

Spencer continued to show he is the short yardage back with another 1-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter for the 21-0 lead. Sophomore Zach Waryanka made all three extra points for the Rams.

Seneca Valley got on the board in the fourth quarter with a 44-yard pass from junior Caden Smithco to senior Josh McLean. That would be the last score of the game for either team.

Meckler finished as the fourth leading rusher in the WPIAL in Week 8 with 216 yards. Spencer also topped the century mark, finishing with 109 yards.

Pine-Richland improves to 8-1 overall and 7-0 in Class 6A. The Rams will travel to North Allegheny (7-0) next week for the section championship at 7 p.m.

Seneca Valley drops to 6-3 overall and are tied in fourth place in the section with a 4-3 record. The Raiders will finish the regular season next week with a trip to Norwin (2-5) at 7 p.m.