IRWIN— Norwin is coming off consecutive WPIAL playoff appearances and a surprising 17-14 win over Seneca Valley last week.

But Knights fans are snapping up plenty of programs this season because only three starters return, and none play defense.

"It's a bit of a challenge this time around,"fifth-year Norwin coach Dan Conwell said. "We are a very young football team."

Norwin hosts Butler for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff Friday. The Knights were 7-4 a year ago, losing to McKeesport in overtime in the WPIALquarterfinals.

Included among those seven victories was a 35-7 triumph over the Golden Tornado in Week 2 here.

The Knights' big trio from that squad, wide receivers Mike Salopek and Mike Shanahan, and fullback-linebacker Tyler Urban, have moved on to Division Icollege programs.

Salopek is wrestling at the University of Virginia, Shanahan is a receiver at Pitt and Urban is a tight end at West Virginia.

"We graduated 23 seniors from that team,"Conwell said. "Those anchors are gone. Now we have to be a lot more balanced."

The only returning starters are 6-foot-3 senior quarterback Alex Dennison, 6-3, 290-pound senior guard Donald Rhodes and 6-3 senior tight end Sean Brown.

Yet Norwin was able to steal a win from Seneca Valley in Week 1 as linebacker John Palumbo returned a fumble 58 yards for a touchdown and Zane Zahorchak booted a 25-yard field goal for the deciding points with less than four minutes remaining.

"Zane's a senior and he's been around the program, but we had the same kicker here for three years,"Conwell said. "Zane had a knee injury last year.

"That was a big kick for us. Then again, he did what seniors are expected to do. He handles our punting, too."

Tyler Lukart paced the Knights' ground game last week with 12 carries for 85 yards. Fullback Joel DeFelice added 41 yards on six carries.

Norwin starts only four seniors on offense and five on defense this season. Seemingly, the program is building toward next season.

"On paper, it looks that way,"Conwell admitted. "But our challenge as coaches is to push these kids and challenge this group to make a name for itself."

Norwin surrendered 300 yards passing to SVsenior C.J. Brown in its opener, but Conwell lauded the play of his secondary.

Cornerback Christian Bryan and free safety Tim Petro are sophomore starters. The other corner, Nick Revis, is a senior.

"Sean Brown applied some good pressure on the quarterback from his defensive end position, too,"Conwell said. "We played classic bend-but -don't-break defense. We allowed a lot of yards, but few points."

Conwell said Butler appears much improved from a year ago.

"They are a physical team,"he said. "They have a second-year head coach and you can really see the improvement from year one to year two."