BUTLER TWP — Mistakes did Butler in during the first half.

North Allegheny wore Butler out during the second.

Quarterback Geoff Greco rushed for 114 yards and three touchdowns while Karl DeCiantis added 113 yards and a score as the undefeated Tigers (8-0, 4-0) hung a 34-0 football loss on the Golden Tornado (0-8, 0-4) Friday night at Art Bernardi Stadium.

"You can't make mistakes against great teams,"Butler coach Jeff McAnallen said. "We knew we couldn't line up physically with those guys, so we had to try some different things.

"Our kids were excited at halftime. They knew we were hanging right with them."

Butler trailed 14-0 at the intermission, largely because of its own errors. NA's Wes Henderson recovered a Tornado fumble at the Butler 37-yard line on the third play of the game. Two plays later, Greco scored on a 37-yard run.

Midway through the first period, Tony Fudoli caught a screen pass and rambled 19 yards for an apparent Butler first down at its own 40-yard line. An illegal procedure penalty wiped out the play and the Tornado had to punt from inside their own 20.

The Tigers took advantage of the short field and marched 38 yards in seven plays, with Greco scoring on an 18-yard run with 2:16 left in the quarter.

Every snap of the opening quarter took place in Butler territory. The Tornado mounted an 18-play, 54-yard drive that used 7:48 and took the ball to the North Allegheny 26-yard line.

Three dropped passes over the middle eventually ended the threat as Butler turned the ball over on downs with 6:28 left in the half.

"(Quarterback Cole Harvey) was putting the ball on the money. We just weren't catching it for him,"McAnallen said.

Harvey was sacked six times in the game., and NA senior linebacker Zach Watts was in on four of them, including a fourth-and-10 play from the Tigers 25 that resulted in a 12-yard loss with 30 seconds remaining before halftime.

Two big plays — a 23-yard run by DeCiantis and a 20-yard Mike Locke pass to Greco — set up Justin Facer for a 37-yard field goal attempt at the end of the half, but the kick fell well short.

Butler ran 40 offensive plays to the Tigers' 18 in the first two quarters, and Josh Reddick and Mason McLaughlin recovered fumbles for the Tornado.

"Only running 18 plays and fumbling the ball is unacceptable to us,"NAcoach Art Walker Jr. said. "Our offense couldn't get into any kind of flow.

"In the second half, we wanted to establish our running game a lot more."

That had to wait as Butler kicker Ryan Soule drilled the second-half kickoff off a North Allegheny up-back, and the Tornado's T.J. Lesniewski fell on the loose football.

"I told the kids we were going to try that type of kickoff to generate momentum,"McAnallen said. "They were pretty fired up when it worked."

Butler failed to move the ball, however, as Harvey was sacked twice on the possession. North Allegheny's running game took over from there.

DeCiantis had three carries for 21 yards in the first half. He had nine carries for 92 yards in the second.

The Tigers scored on drives of 79 and 84 yards to take a 28-0 lead with 11:20 remaining. Their final score was set up by a Brad Comport fumble recovery at the Butler 21-yard line.

"They wore us down in the second half,"McAnallen admitted. "They were just too strong and physical for us."

Butler had 117 yards of offense in getting shut out for the second consecutive game.