JACKSON TWP — There was a time when Seneca Valley girls soccer coach Dave Sylvester concerned himself with Senior Night jitters from his players.

“Early on in my career, I was really nervous about that,” said Sylvester, who is in his 14th season of leading the Raiders. “But as the years have gone by, I've accepted that it (Senior Night) is just part of it. They're good athletes and they come to play. I think part of their mindset is they don't want to have a bad Senior Night.”

Seven SV seniors were recognized before Wednesday's Section 2-AAA clash with Butler and the Raiders proceeded to defeat their rivals 6-0 at NexTier Stadium.

The win pushes Seneca's overall record to 16-0 and 12-0 in section play.

“I thought it would take us a long time to really get into the game,” said Raiders' senior midfielder Kelsey O'Connor, who scored one of her team's five goals in the second half. “But once we started playing, it was just another game.”

Butler's loss, along with North Allegheny's 2-0 win against North Hills, ends the Golden Tornado's playoff hopes.

“We just made too many mistakes tonight,” said Butler coach Steve Perri. “Mistakes that you can't make in a big game and against a team like this.”

The Raiders had ample scoring opportunities in the first 23 minutes of the game, including a pair of corner kicks from Alicia Hart. But a save from Butler goalkeeper Mackenzie Troyan and several shots that sailed either wide or over the net kept Seneca off the scoreboard.

Then in the 24th minute, Hart's corner kick from the right of Butler's net was booted by a Tornado defender, but not out of danger as Kalyn Serman took control 10 yards from the goal and found the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.

That's where the score remained for the duration of the first half, with the Tornado unable to muster much push into the Raiders' end.

Butler was awarded a throw-in deep in enemy territory in the 27th minute, but the threat was quickly cleared after Rachel Woessner put the ball in play.

Sydney Barr tallied Butler's first shot on goal early in the second half, but Seneca keeper Jess Neill made the stop.

Four minutes later, Cassidy Testa made it 2-0 when she scored on a rebound. SV would go on to score three goals in a three-minute span — tallies from O'Connor, Emily Wagner and Madeline Seibel — and led 5-0 with 21 minutes remaining.

“When it's a 1-0 game, there's still some life (for the team that is down),” Sylvester said. “But when we came out and made it 3-0, 4-0, I think Butler started to realize things were closing on them.

“I think Steve is doing a great job there,” he added. “They get a win here tonight and they're in the playoffs and we knew that.”

Nicole Walters capped the scoring by heading in a goal off a corner kick from Hart in the 68th minute.

Hart, a senior defender, is SV's corner-kick specialist.

“She's good from the left or right of the net,” said Sylvester. “She can hit it short or long. I don't have all the numbers figured out, but I know we have scored a lot of goals off set pieces from her corner kicks.”

Troyan stopped nine shots for Butler (8-8, 7-5) and Neill made three saves for the Raiders.

O'Connor and Seneca's other seniors want to extend their scholastic soccer careers as far as possible. A deep run in the upcoming WPIAL and PIAA playoffs will do the trick.

“Being part of this team is incredible,” she said. “We're all so close. We work together and make things happen.”