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JACKSON TWP — It could have been a night for Seneca Valley's girls soccer team to fall victim to complacency.
Instead, it turned into another scoring spree for the Raiders.
Eleven days after hosting and defeating Penn-Trafford 5-0 in a regular season game, the Raiders and Warriors found themselves on the same field Monday for a WPIAL Class 4A first-round playoff.
Five different players scored goals as SV again overwhelmed Penn-Trafford, 6-0, at NexTier Stadium.
“Just beating them recently, it was a concern for us coming in,” said Raiders' coach Mark Perry. “It's the playoffs and anything can happen in the playoffs.”
Seneca Valley (14-3-2) will host Norwin, a 5-0 winner over North Hills Monday, in a quarterfinal at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Senior forward Zoe Simpson gave the Raiders a 2-0 lead with a pair of goals just one minute, 32 seconds apart early in the first half.
The first tally was set up when SV's rush toward Penn-Trafford's net caused goalkeeper Taylor Lloyd to come off her line in the 12th minute of play.
Defender Taylor Jones ended up keeping the ball out of the net, but it resulted in a throw-in from Bayden Valentovish deep in the Warriors' end.
Simpson placed the ball just under the crossbar and added her second goal moments later when she out-maneuvered a Warrior defender in a 1-on-1 situation.
“We just had to keep our energy up,” said Simpson, who now has a team-leading 12 goals on the season. “They (Warriors) have a few good players who could've hurt us early on if we weren't playing well.”
Liv Senff and Julia Lozowski both scored before the end of the half for a 4-0 lead.
Senff's goal, her 11th this fall, came when she sent a blistering shot toward the goal in the 22nd minute. Lloyd dove to her right and initially stopped the ball, but the shot had so much on it that it bounced off the goalie's gloves, onto the turf and across the goalline just inside the left post.
Lloyd made five saves in the first 40 minutes, but played in the field in the second half while freshman Rease Solomon took over in net.
The Raiders, who earned nine corner kicks in the game, pelted her with 10 shots. She stopped eight of them, but allowed goals to Chloe Leonard and Valentovish.
SV goalkeeper Virginia Fronk made four saves.
The best chance the Warriors (6-11) had to score came in the 74th minute when Fronk stopped a shot from Malia Kearns, who put a solid shot on goal from 25 yards.
“We have two good goalkeepers,” said Perry. “Virginia ... and Mia Humphreys has played well in some big games for us.
“Our defense is strong and is led by Sydney Smith, Olivia Kamarec and Chloe Leonard. They keep teams from getting a lot of shots on our keepers.”
The Raiders will next get a shot to avenge a 1-0 loss to Norwin from earlier this season. SV will enter the game riding an 8-game winning streak.
“From where it was at the mid-point of the season, our confidence is way up with all the wins we've had,” said Simpson.
