ERIE — Things were not looking good for Butler in the first half Saturday at Gus Anderson Field.

The Golden Tornado had already taken 10 penalties, were playing without starting quarterback Cooper Baxter and trailed undefeated McDowell, 17-0.

But if the Trojans were on cruise control, it quickly malfunctioned.

Butler (1-2) rallied within 24-21 on the scoreboard and Ethan Babay recovered a McDowell fumble at the Trojan 41-yard line with 10:21 to play.

“We were right there,” Tornado coach Eric Christy enthused.

The rally fizzled from there. McDowell (3-0) tacked on a pair of late touchdowns and came away with a hard-earned 38-21 victory.

“We didn't finish some drives earlier due to penalties and mental mistakes,” McDowell coach Bo Orlando said. “We gave them some openings to get back in the game and you can't do that against good teams.”

“I never want to lose, but we grew as a team today,” Butler junior receiver Lance Slater said. “On days like this in the past, Butler teams would have gotten blown out.

“Those days are gone.”

Baxter suffered a hamstring injury late in the Tornado's previous game. He was later diagnosed with a ruptured hamstring and will be out three or four weeks.

Enter Mac Schnur behind center.

And enter footballs flying through the air.

“We found out about Cooper's unavailability on Wednesday,” Christy said. “Our offensive coaches put in a lot of work on a new offensive gameplan and we had to implement it quickly.

“Mac throws the ball very well. Cooper can throw it, too, but it's Mac's strength as a quarterback and we had to make use of that.”

The Tornado passing game caught fire late in the second quarter. Schnur's 34-yard pass to Slater set up Schnur's 6-yard run for Butler's first points with 52 seconds left in the half.

Schnur connected with Slater for a 69-yard scoring pass early in the third quarter. He found tight end Charles Kreinbucher for a 14-yard score with 10:38 left in the game, cutting the gap to 24-21.

“With Coop in the lineup, we were gonna do a lot of quarterback runs,” Schnur said. “I don't run the ball very well.

“We had to switch to a passing attack. Everybody executed. It was fun out there today.”

Schnur wound up throwing for 305 yards and the two touchdowns. Butler threw the ball 46 times and ran it only 17.

Slater caught seven passes for 192 yards.

“Our line stayed on their blocks and gave us time to execute all those passing plays,” Slater said. “This was a total team effort.”

Orlando said Butler's passing attack caught his team by surprise.

“We didn't think they'd throw the ball that often,” the McDowell coach said. “We had a few breakdowns in our coverage.”

McDowell put the game away late, however, when Artis Simmons scored on a 5-yard run — his fourth touchdown of the day — with 4:11 left and Trey Goodwine returned an interception 30 yards for a score 12 seconds later.

Simmons had 25 carries for 260 yards for the Trojans. Ray Jackson added 91 yards on 13 carries. Quarterback Ben Moore threw for 184 yards as McDowell rolled up 532 yards offensively.

“Artis runs downhill and he's strong enough to shed tackles,” Orlando said. “He ran for 140 last week, so he's been on a roll for us.”

Defensively, Landon Lacey had an interception for Butler and Matthew McCombs recovered a fumble on special teams.

“That team is awfully good, but we hung in there with them, fought back against them,” Christy said. “We know we have the elements of a good passing game. We believe in it.”

The teams combined for 30 penalties on a flag-filled day. McDowell had 15 penalties for 165 yards, Butler 15 for 103.

The Tornado host General McLane Friday night at Art Bernardi Stadium.

“We pulled off this change (in offense),” Schnur said. “The coaches gave us some great schemes and we made them work.

“Even though we lost, this game will give us confidence moving forward.”

Butler 0 6 8 7 — 21

McDowell 7 10 7 14 — 38

First Quarter

M — Artis Simmons 12 run (Alex Sontheimer kick), 7:25

Second Quarter

M — Simmons 3 run (Sontheimer kick), 10:16

M — Sontheimer 28 field goal, 5:52

B — Mac Schnur 6 run (kick failed), :52

Third Quarter

B — Lance Slater 69 pass from Schnur (Blaze McCandless pass from Schnur), 11:02

M — Simmons 1 run (Soltheimer kick), 1:40

Fourth Quarter

B — Charles Kreinbucher 14 pass from Schnur (Max Gianneski kick), 10:38

M — Simmons 5 run (Sontheimer kick), 4:11

M — Trey Goodwine 30 interception return (Sontheimer kick), 3:59

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Butler, Mac Schnur 7-23, Landon Dubyak 1-1, Landon Lacey 6-47, Lance Slater 1-(-6), TEAM 2-(-7), David Graef 1-0. McDowell, Ray Jackson 13-91, Artis Simmons 25-260, Ben Moore 4-(-3).

Passing: Butler, Mac Schnur 22-46-305-1. McDowell, Ben Moore 6-21-184-1.

Receiving: Butler, Lance Slater 7-192, Charles Kreinbucher 5-44, Braylon Littlejohn 5-44, Ethan Trettel 4-31, Isaiah Kelly 1-6. McDowell, Hunter Hodges 1-35, Bryce Wood 3-33, Mathew McGregor 2-24, Ray Jackson 3-14, Trey Goodwine 1-33, Nick Malina 1-45.