BUTLER TWP — Pine-Richland's offense didn't get a whole lot of work Friday night.

The scoreboard got plenty.

The Rams rolled up 49 points in the first half — running only 16 offensive plays — and cruised to a 56-7 Quad County football victory over Butler at Art Bernardi Stadium.

Pine-Richland (4-0, 2-0) scored touchdowns on a 64-yard punt return, 45-yard interception return and a blocked punt in the end zone during the first two quarters.

“I call those types of scores bonus touchdowns,” Rams coach Eric Kasperowicz said. “It's awesome seeing us score that way. Special teams are one-third of the game.”

Pine-Richland scored two plays into the game. Eli Jochem caught a screen pass from Cole Spencer and turned it into a 40-yard touchdown.

Butler (0-4, 0-2) tried a pooch punt with quarterback Cooper Baxter to end its first possession, but Luke Meckler made an over-the-shoulder catch of the punt and returned it 64 yards for a touchdown.

“Once we tried that quick punt and they ran it back, that was it. We weren't going to punt it to them again,” Butler coach Eric Christy said. “We want to be aggressive on offense anyway, show the kids we have confidence in them by going for it on fourth down.

“We have to convert more third-down plays to avoid those situations.”

Butler did punt two more times, one of them from its own end zone that the Rams blocked, recovering the ball for a touchdown.

By failing to pick up first downs in their own territory, the Golden Tornado enabled Pine-Richland to polish off scoring drives of 38, 31 and 28 yards in the first half.

After turning the ball over on downs at its own 43 late in the first quarter — trailing 21-0 at the time — Butler forced a fumble that was recovered by Colin Look at the 42.

But on the next play, a Baxter pass was deflected into the arms of Caden Schweiger, who returned it 45 yards for a score.

“We didn't catch any breaks tonight tyat way,” Christy said. “We knew what we were up against in this game, so we tried to force a few things.

“Plays were open for us. It's always a missed pass, a missed block, missed assignment ... We can't get all 11 guys out there to execute at the same time.”

Butler ran 38 plays to the Rams' 16 in that bizarre first half. Pine-Richland scored its final points of the half on a free play as the Tornado were flagged for pass interference with no time on the clock.

Rams back-up quarterback Dayne Goltz tossed an 8-yard scoring pass to Charlie Mill to end the half.

“I liked the effort all of our guys on the field showed tonight,” Kasperowicz said.

Trailing 56-0 late, Butler got on the scoreboard with 1:11 to play. Baxter tossed a 30-yard pass to Zach Slomers down the right sideline, setting up the quarterback's 12-yard touchdown run.

The Tornado have scored in every game this year. Baxter's touchdown was the first time Butler scored on Pine-Richland in three years.

“We're always looking for positives and our kids played hard all night,” Christy said. “We just have to keep pushing forward.

“What are we going to do tomorrow? How are going to become better players in practice next week? We're just gonna keep on going.”

Baxter rushed for 85 yards to lead the Tornado offensively. Slomers caught four passes for 46 yards.

Spencer threw for 103 yards and two TDs — both to Jochem — before his night ended late in the second quarter. Pine-Richland ran the ball only six times in the first half.

“Those bubble screens have been there for us and we have athletes who can break them for big plays,” Kasperowicz said.

Butler travels to Seneca Valley next Friday for the annual Eagle Traveling Trophy game.

Pine-Richland 28 21 0 7 — 56

Butler 0 0 0 7 — 7

First Quarter

P-R — Eli Jochem 40 pass from Cole Spencer (Zach Waryanka kick), 11:29

P-R — Luke Meckler 64 punt return (Waryanka kick), 9:46

P-R — Jochem 6 pass from Spencer (Waryanka kick), 3:17

P-R — Caden Schweiger 45 interception return (Waryanka kick), 1:57

Second Quarter

P-R — Josh Rectenberg recovered blocked punt in endzone (Waryanka kick), 7:17

P-R — Meckler 25 run (Waryanka kick), 3:29

P-R — Charlie Mill 8 pass from Dayne Goltz (Waryanka kick), :00

Fourth Quarter

P-R — Tristen Taylor 2 run (Chris Romano kick), 10:47

B — Cooper Baxter 12 run (Emory Douthett kick), 1:11

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Pine-Richland, Cole Spencer 1-3, Luke Meckler 3-24, Tristen Taylor 6-22, Dayne Goltz 1-6, Max Heckert 3-1. Butler, Cooper Baxter 18-85, Justin Kabay 10-36, Zach Slomers 3-(-5), Isaiah Kelly 2-3, Antonio Harris 1-3.

Passing: Pine-Richland, Cole Spencer 6-9-103-0, Dayne Goltz 4-5-47-0. Butler, Cooper Baxter 5-19-52-0, Anthony Daviduk 0-1-0-0.

Receiving: Pine-Richland, Eric Jochem 2-46, Luke Meckler 2-37, Jeremiah Hasley 1-14, Seth Bolin 1-6, Chris Argenas 1-6, Charlie Mill 1-18, Branden Ansel 1-16, Ethan Westerhofff 1-17. Butler, Zach Slomers 4-46, Antonio Harris 1-3.