NH ruins Butler homecoming
BUTLER TWP — Fourth down was unkind to Butler's homecoming Friday night.
Three critical plays in those situations paved the way for North Hills' 34-0 football victory over the Golden Tornado at Art Bernardi Stadium.
The Indians (6-0, 3-0) scored the game's first points on a fourth-and-goal from the Butler 2-yard line. Quarterback Taylor Schmidt rolled left and barely beat the pursuit into the left corner of the end zone.
The drive — occurring on the game's first possession — took 10 plays to consume 83 yards.
After Schmidt scored on a 38-yard run to give North Hills a 13-0 lead, all appeared lost for the Tornado.
The Indians' Tyler Reddick recovered a botched Butler handoff at the Tornado 16-yard line with 3:51 left in the opening quarter. But on the next play, the Tornado's Chris Abbott recovered a North Hills fumble at the Butler 9-yard line.
"These kids aren't quitters," Butler coach Jim Rankin said. "They fought hard tonight. They never hung their heads. I'm proud of them for that."
Following the fumble recovery, Butler marched 90 yards to the Indians 1-yard line. Jordan Lumley completed passes of 32 and 29 yards to A.J. Lee to highlight the drive.
But on fourth down from inside the 1, Lumley was stopped short on a quarterback sneak.
"We needed to get in right there. It was all about momentum," Rankin said.
North Hills coach Jack McCurry agreed.
"We punched one in and they didn't," McCurry said. "One team has to come up big in those situations. Tonight, it was us."
North Hills didn't score again until 1:19 remained in the third quarter. On fourth-and-7 from the Tornado 21, Schmidt found Mark DeVita for a 15-yard completion before Brody Zangaro scored the touchdown on a 4-yard run.
Moments later, Lumley's option pitch eluded Trevor Wideman and the Indians' Jared Heck recovered at the Butler 37. Schmidt found DeVita alone in the end zone on the next play.
Schmidt rushed for 82 yards and threw for 125.
DeVita had five catches for 100 yards for North Hills.
Butler played two sophomores on its offensive line Friday, including center Curtis Hunka, who started for the injured T.J. Hays.
"We made some plays in the passing game tonight and missed a few others," Rankin said. "But Jordan hasn't had enough reps yet and the effort was there against one of the highly ranked Quad-A teams.
"We're looking for positive steps and we made some in this game. That may sound foolhardy looking at the final score, but it's true."
Darius Hightower had 128 yards on four kickoff returns for the Tornado (0-6, 0-4), who couldn't avoid their 20th consecutive regular season defeat.
