Luke Lawson runs the football during Friday nights game against North Allegheny at Wright Field. Christine Border/Special to the Eagle

McCANDLESS TWP — The Seneca Valley football team had its security blanket start to unravel 13 minutes before it took the field to play North Allegheny Friday night at Newman Stadium.

Everything else fell apart just before 10 p.m.

Undone by turnovers and mental mistakes, the Raiders’ season was halted with a 27-26 loss to the Tigers.

Seneca Valley either needed to beat the Tri-County Five Conference champion North Allegheny or have Canon-McMillan beat Mt. Lebanon to make the WPIAL Class 6A playoffs. The Blue Devils, however, made the second part of the equation quickly moot.

Mt. Lebanon scored its first touchdown at 7:17 p.m. on its way to a 31-0 victory. But Seneca Valley senior linebacker/H-back Chris D’Appolonia, who caught a 34-yard touchdown pass and recorded a big sack in the third quarter, said the focus was never on the other game.

“This was our only focus,” D’Appolonia said. “We knew this was a win and we’re in situation, we put all of our effort into this. No one was checking scores at halftime. We were worried about getting the job done here and we couldn’t get it done tonight.”

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