The Armstrong Arrows didn’t run out of time — they ran into too much time.

The Arrows U16 AA hockey team — featuring four players from Butler — were eliminated in the semifinals of the USA Nationals tournament recently in Frisco, Texas. They were bounced by an 8-1 loss to the Chicago Blues.

“We were actually up 1-0 in that game. Then we were just worn out, took too many penalties and it got away from us,” U16 coach Lee Grafton said.

The Arrows won three games at nationals and dropped an overtime game to the Santa Clara Blackhawks on a Saturday night to close pool play.

Having qualified for the quarterfinals Sunday morning, the Arrows played another overtime game, this one a 3-2 victory over the Cheektowaga (N.Y.) Warriors. That put them into the semifinals against Chicago later the same day.

“Just too many periods of hockey too close together ... We ran out of gas,” Grafton said.

Jerome Oliver Jr. of Butler scored one of the goals in the win over Cheektowaga. He had an assist in the tournament as well.

Butler’s Taite Dusheck had two assists while Justin Strobel and Ronan Miller assisted on goals during the tourney as well The Arrows were 3-2 in the tournament overall and finished the season with a 49-10-5 record.

“All of those Butler kids contributed to our success down there,” Grafton said. “They played well in every game.”

There were 40 teams in the national tournament. The Arrows entered the competition ranked No. 8 nationally and had one of the youngest teams in the field.

“Most of the teams were comprised of all 16-year-olds,” Grafton said. “Only half of our roster was 16. The teams we played were phenomenal.

“Armstrong had never sent a team to nationals before we went last year and the program’s been around since 1968. We’re pretty happy with what we’ve done.”

The U16 Arrows reached the national finals last year before getting to the semifinal round this season. The Chicago Blues scored five power-play goals against them.

Miller and Oliver are eligible to return to the Arrows’ U16 team next season. Strobel and Dusheck would have to move up to U18.

The Arrows played five games in four days at nationals, defeating the Ashburn (Va.) Xtreme 3-0 and Team Wisconsin 3-1 in pool play.