BUTLER TWP — Butler turned it up a notch when it had to, but the Golden Tornado were turned away.

Trailing by a goal and managing only three shots on net in the first half, Butler's boys soccer team peppered Chartiers Valley goalkeeper Brandon Kern with 11 shots in the second half. The Tornado hit the goalpost with one shot, the crossbar with another.

But the visiting Colts (11-6-2) escaped with a 4-3 victory in a first-round, WPIAL Class AAA boys soccer playoff game on a chilly, rainy Monday night at the Butler intermediate school field.

"They are a tremendous team," Chartiers Valley coach Gary Weber said. "That's why they're 17-3. Even when they were behind, they kept coming at us."

With 37:17 seconds left in the game, Butler's Ben Horner knocked in a rebound of a shot that hit the crossbar, knotting the score at two for the Tornado.

But less than three minutes later, Chartiers Valley senior John Bonaccorsi, playing with a cast on a broken arm, found the far-left corner of the net off a corner kick from Jason Hyre to give the Colts the lead they never lost.

Chartiers Valley got leading scorer Joel Zalesky (11 goals) back Monday night after he missed six games with a broken foot.

With 9:56 left, Adam Braithwaite scored off a pass from Donnie Schwartzmiller to increase the Colts' lead to 4-2.

"This is playoff soccer and our guys aren't used to it yet," Butler coach Chuck Kelley said. "But this program is changing and they're changing with it."

K.J. Ludlum pulled Butler (17-4) to within 4-3 when he headed in a rebound with 2:09 to play, but the Tornado did not threaten again.

While trailing 3-2, the Tornado had numerous opportunities to get even. Doug Moran, who scored Butler's first goal, just missed the upper right corner with shots within seconds of each other with 25 minutes left.

Horner got off two clean shots from the middle of the field, but both sailed right into goalkeeper Kern.

"That's the breaks," Kelley said. "That's what usually decides games like this. This was a typical soccer playoff game on a muddy field in cool weather.

"We scored our first goal off a mistake by them."

That was Moran, who found himself with a clean breakaway less than five minutes into the game when Colt defender Jimmy Bichler slipped and fell.

Moran made no mistake, rolling a shot into the left corner of the net at 35:24.

Chartiers Valley answered with a pair of goals late in the half. Joe Puleo hit the right goalpost, the ball deflecting out in front of the net before a Butler player accidentally knocked it into his own net with 3:30 left in the half.

"Joe Puleo's only a sophomore and he played an outstanding game for us," Weber said.

Justin Taucher, a senior midfielder, scored the go-ahead goal for the Colts with 1:30 left.

Chartiers Valley is in the WPIAL playoffs for the eighth consecutive year. Butler qualified for the playoffs for the first time in five years.

The Tornado surrendered as many goals in their last two games — eight — as they did in their first 19 contests.

Butler dropped a 4-2 decision to Seneca Valley to close the regular season.

"We made mistakes, but Seneca Valley and Chartiers Valley are two seasoned programs with 10 seniors or more," Kelley said. "We only had five seniors.

"This was a great ride. These kids made great strides this year and most of them will be back."

Butler's departing seniors are Stephen Armahizer, Jacob Kalafut, Ludlum, Matthew Gamble and Kyle Bodkin.

Butler had 14 shots on goal to Char Valley's 12. The Colts had five corner kicks to the Tornado's one.