BUTLER TWP— Scoring goals is not a common occurrence for the Pine-Richland boys soccer team.

But the Rams don't waste them, either.

Pine-Richland netted the lone goal of the game with 25 minutes, 29 seconds remaining Tuesday night when Matt Hickey's corner kick was headed into the net, giving the Rams a 1-0 victory over Butler.

The goal was only Pine-Richland's 17th in 12 games this season, but it improved the team's record to 8-3-1 overall and gave it sole possession of first place in Section 2-AAA with a 6-1 mark.

"We've never won a section title since we moved up to Class AAAin 2000," Pine-Richland coach Dan Brower said. "We've had a few second-place finishes.

"One of these kids' goals this year was to win or at least share the section championship. We're in the driver's seat to do that now, but there's still a lot of soccer left to be played."

Adrian Karas leads Pine-Richland in goals with five, including four game-winners.

"We've found a way to make them count,"Brower said.

Butler (9-3-1, 5-2) entered the game tied with the Rams for the section lead, but suffered its second loss to the team. Pine-Richland scored a 3-2 win over the Golden Tornado on Sept. 11.

Tuesday's loss also marked the second straight shutout defeat for Butler, which suffered a 2-0 loss at Fox Chapel on Saturday. Before that game, the Tornado had scored 27 goals in 11 contests.

"I'm not too concerned,"Butler coach Troy Mohney said of the recent scoring drought. "We played much better tonight than we did against Fox Chapel.

"We were creative and created a lot of opportunities for ourselves. We just couldn't finish one off."

Senior Jake Huey was particularly frustrated, hitting the left goalpost twice and sailing a 25-yard penalty kick off the crossbar during a seven-minute stretch in the second half.

"One of those nights,"Mohney said. "I feel like we had the better of the play."

The Tornado had nine shots on goal to Pine-Richland's four. Butler took four corner kicks to the Rams' two — only Pine-Richland scored on one of those two.

The Rams don't know who deflected in Hickey's corner kick.

"We had a cluster in front of the net,"Brower said. "The first deflection got stopped, then the ball was headed in. No one's quite sure who got it.

"We're calling it a team goal and that's exactly what it was."

The ball was headed in off the crossbar, the carom going straight down and just across the goal line.

Sophomore goalkeeper Nick Donnelly came up big for Pine-Richland twice in the second half, making a leaping save to deny Matt Kreutzer with 22:20 left in the game and following that with a lunging save on Huey with 10:40 left.

"We can always count on Nick to make a couple of big saves like that every night,"Brower said. "You feel good with a 1-0 lead with him back there. But we had to hang on in this one."

Butler controlled play during the game's first 30 minutes as well. Ryan Armahizer, who is second on the Tornado with seven goals this season, put a shot just over the net less than five minutes into the contest. Another Armahizer shot sailed just wide right eight minutes later.

Jake Gamble leads Butler with eight goals and barely missed No. 9 when his shot from 20 yards out sailed over the net with 13:45 left in the first half.

"We had plenty of chances to get some (goals) tonight,"Mohney said. "It just didn't happen for us.

"We're not done yet (in terms of winning the section), but now we have to look for some help. And our last three section games won't be easy."

The Tornado play Thursday at North Hills, then have section games at North Allegheny and Seneca Valley next week.