BUTLER TWP — Head coach Troy Mohney made a formation shift to make sure the Butler boys soccer team was causing confusion for opposing defenses with its offensive attack.

Stale attacks dragged the Golden Tornado down earlier in the season and put them in a tough situation in Section 3-AAA.

Butler, which beat Gateway 2-1 in non-conference action Saturday at Art Bernardi Stadium, is 6-5 overall and 2-5 in section. The Golden Tornado need to hurdle four teams to reach third place and earn their third straight WPIAL playoff berth.

Pine-Richland currently holds the spot with a 2-3-4 mark in section. The Golden Tornado have employed a 4-3-2-1 formation for the past three games and created havoc against the Gators (2-9).

Butler generated 13 shots, including five on goal. The Golden Tornado, which has scored 20 goals this season, employed a wide array of weapons.

“If you saw today, it was all different ways of attacking,” Mohney said. “We were combining from forward to midfielder, forward to outside guy. We were getting crosses in. It was nice. We didn’t finish as many as we wanted to, but we created a lot of chances.”

Finding a scoring touch against Gateway took time. Butler senior forward Paul James got in on net three minutes in, but sent his shot wide of the post. Sophomore Tate Mohney had a shot that was stopped by Gator keeper Clayton Nola.

“We’ve had a problem scoring,” Tate Mohney said. “We haven’t completed that many passes. Our problem was getting scored on. We moved to four in the back instead of three and haven’t got that many shots on us. We’ve gone forward more. I think the formation change is what helped us.”

The Gators ended up scoring first when Daniel Snyder drove in a shot from 15 yards out with 10 minutes, 41 seconds left in the first half.

Gateway finished the game with two shots on goal.

“I thought our back line was dropping too far in the first half and Gateway outnumbered us in the midfield,” Troy Mohney said. “We made an adjustment at halftime, pushing those defenders a little higher, which pushed our midfielders higher.”

Tate Mohney evened the game four minutes into the second half by driving a shot into the upper-left hand corner of the net. James scored the winner 10 minutes later. He got in on net and hit a shot on the ground past Nola that snuck inside the post.

“I was trying to pick out a corner,” James said. “We were practicing that yesterday and it paid off.”

The formation has paid off with more scoring chances.

Now, Butler has a stretch of five straight section games to try and climb out of the cellar. The Golden Tornado will play Tuesday at Pine-Richland, Thursday at home against Shaler and Saturday at Hampton.

All the games will be crucial. Tate Mohney expects with its new offense, and a new attitude, Butler will be able to string together some wins.

“We need to want it more,” Mohney said. “I think we’ve been lackadaisical the last few games. Not working hard enough. We need to come out and keep our heads up and win these last five games to make the playoffs.”