CANONSBURG — Being on the road in this young 2023 football season is not unfamiliar territory for the Seneca Valley Raiders football team.

In its third straight road game to start the season, Seneca Valley (0-3) was no match for the Big Mac attack from Canon-McMillan (2-1) as the Raiders fell 38-0 in WPIAL 6A conference action Friday night at AHN Field at Canonsburg Memorial Stadium.

“Our biggest issue is ourselves right now,” Raiders coach Ron Butschle said. “We are just not executing things we need to execute. No excuses – that’s a really good team. We put ourselves in bad situations because of poor executions and that’s on me.”

The lack of execution started at the line of scrimmage. A constant pressure was put on Raider quarterback Sean O’Shea throughout the evening, but at times he was able to slip through some initial tackles and turn nothing into something.

“I think (O’Shea) is a heck of a player,” Canon-McMillan coach Mike Evans said. “At one point he started to take the game over, but we are happy with the win obviously.”

O’Shea and the Raider offense struggled on their first two possessions and Canon-McMillan’s offense didn’t.

On the Big Macs’ first two drives, they were able to rack up 10 points and keep the Raiders deep in their own territory.

Then O’Shea was able to find some gaps to run through and make a few plays on his own, but putting the team on his shoulders proved to be too much.

“Everybody has to play their role,” Butschle said. “We just have to trust the process we are putting together and right now we are not doing that. Again, that’s on me.”

The early part of the second quarter was a defensive battle, but with 2:44 left in the first half, Big Mac quarterback Mike Evans, son of coach Evans, threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Bradyn Matto.

Big Mac running back Zach Welsh set up the drive with a couple long runs, while quarterback Evans made a few himself.

“(Seneca Valley) was playing a lot of cover one,” coach Evans said. “We knew we were going to get a 4-3 box from them. We left a full back in there to deal with is because that’s hard to run on. We had some luck, but they got us a few times, too.”

Then on the following drive, Kaeden Singleton intercepted a pass from O’Shea and was able to walk the ball in another 15 yards for another quick score.

Canon-McMillan continued the attack on the first drive of the second half lead by Evans, who finished the drive off with an 11 yard touchdown run.

Evans finished the game as the Big Mac’s leading rusher with 75 yards on nine carries, while throwing for 154 yards and a touchdown pass.

Despite Canon-McMillan’s convincing win, coach Evans said there is still plenty for his team to clean up.

“We got to enjoy this tonight then we got to whip this off and watch the film,” coach Evans said. “There were mistakes and things that were not right like penalties. There were a few things that could’ve changed this game early. There were a couple overthrown balls by (Seneca) and got some guys past us on the post. We got to look at things critically.”

The Raiders will get their first home game of the season in search of win number one this coming Friday against non-conference opponent Pine-Richland.

“I just told the guys I only know one way out and that’s to put our head down and go back to work,” Butschle said. “There are no magic plays. We just have to go back to work and figure ourselves out.”

Seneca Valley 0 0 0 0 - 0

Canon-McMillan 10 14 14 0 - 38

First quarter

CM – Geno Calgaro 1 run (Zachary Barzd kick) 7:55

CM – Barzd 25 field goal 2:36

Second quarter

CM – Bradyn Matto 20 pass from Mike Evans (Barzd kick) 2:44

CM – Kaeden Singleton interception returned for touchdown (Barzd kick) 1:58

Third quarter

CM – Evans 11 run (Barzd kick) 9:42

CM – Zach Welsh 5 run (Barzd kick) 3:38

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Seneca Valley, Sean O’Shea 12-4, Kai West 4-1, Kyler Matson 3-17. Canon-McMillan, Mike Evans 9-25, Zach Welsh 17-65, Geno Calgaro 4-10, Troy Simpson 7-32, Ty Jansma 2-(-1).

Passing: Seneca Valley, Sean O’Shea 10-21-108-1, Parker Brugos 2-322-0. Canon-McMillan, Mike Evans 11-15-154-0.

Receiving: Seneca Valley, Luke Challingsworth 3-16, Amari Henson 2-10, Dajaun Webb 2-55, Kai West 3- 27, Brayden Wise 1-7, Conner Matson 1-15, Canon-McMillan, Kaeden Singleton 1-9, Zach Welsh 4-60, Zyan Howard 5-65, Bradyn Matto 1-20.