NEW CASTLE — New Castle’s train is rolling.

Friday night, Butler was on the tracks.

The unbeaten Red Hurricane never trailed, outscored the Golden Tornado 22-4 in the first quarter and cruised to an 82-40 Section 3-AAAA boys basketball victory.

The win marked New Castle’s 39th consecutive regular season win — 21st straight at home. The ‘Canes (15-0, 8-0) are 42-1 over the past two seasons, losing only to Montour in overtime in the PIAA Tournament.

“To hang with a team like that, you can’t miss any easy shots. You just can’t make mistakes,” Butler coach Matt Clement said. “We missed three lay-ups very early in the first quarter.

“We got some penetration right off the bat and that was our chance to stay with them early.”

New Castle turned the ball over only four times all night while Butler (5-9, 2-6) had 19 turnovers.

“We’re averaging fewer than 10 turnovers per game and we get a lot of possessions with the style we play,” New Castle coach Ralph Blundo said. “A lot of that is because we have a four-year starter (Brandon Domenick) at point guard.

“Having a four-year starter at that position in Quad-A is huge.”

Shawn Anderson, a 6-foor-3 senior, led the ‘Canes with 21 points, seven rebounds and three steals. Levar Ware, a 6-3 junior, came off the bench to score 11 points and snare seven boards while Antonio Rudolph had 10 points.

Malik Hooker, who averages 19.5 per game, scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds. Anthony Richards had eight points and four assists.

“Hooker is being recruited by Penn State as a wide receiver and they’ve got three other guys with Division I basketball ability ... and that’s not even mentioning Richards, who makes everything go for them,” Clement said.

“There may be a team in the state as good as them. I doubt if there’s a team that’s better.”

New Castle’s 42-point final margin was its biggest lead of the night.

“This is a special group of guys who are doing the right things on the floor — and off the court,” Blundo said. “They have pride in putting on this uniform. It means something to these kids and to this town.

“We didn’t play our best game tonight. We allowed too much penetration. Our athleticism can make up for defensive mistakes, but we don’t want to rest on that. We want to play the game right.”

Zach Neudorfer came off the bench to pace Butler with 11 points. He scored all of them — including three treys — within the first three minutes of the third quarter.

Luke Tincha came off the bench to score eight points for the Tornado. Point guard Keenan Krause scored eight as well.

“Tincha and Neudorfer are two seniors who really played hard when they were in there tonight,” Clement said. “Zach hit some nice shots, Luke took a charge ... That’s why, even when JV players were getting in the game, I left those guys out there.

“They deserved to play a lot of minutes.”

New Castle had a 34-22 edge in rebounds. Arum Krause and Luke Hartung had four boards each for Butler.

“Ralph played a bunch of freshmen and sophomores when he first took that job to build their team,” Clement said. “But we’re worried about the here and now.

“We have to keep plugging away, start picking off teams one at a time. There’s a bunch of teams in our section who can knock each other off. This thing can still turn into a scramble.”

BUTLER 40

Dom Pusateri 1-4 0-0 2, Seth Cook 2-3 1-2 5, Keenan Krause 2-6 3-4 8, Zach Neudorfer 4-5 0-0 11, Shae Stobert 0-0 0-0 0, Arum Krause 1-7 2-2 4, Nick Patten 0-1 0-0 0, Luke Hartung 0-3 0-0 0, Luke Tincha 3-4 2-2 8, Mark Gross 1-1 0-0 2, Jordan Cratty 0-0 0-0 0, Andrew Paterno 0-0 0-0 0, Justice Lewandowski 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 14-34 8-10 40.

NEW CASTLE 82

Brandon Domenick 3-7 0-0 7, Jesse Salzano 2-5 0-0 6, Drew Allen 0-2 0-0 0, Antonio Rudolph 4-7 1-1 10, Shawn Anderson 8-15 4-4 21, Anthony Richards 2-4 2-2 8, Malik Hooker 3-7 3-4 9, Stew Allen 1-3 0-0 2, Levar Ware 5-5 1-2 11, Micah Fulena 1-1 1-3 3, Tyler Fitzpatrick 0-2 1-2 1, Robert Natale 0-1 0-1 0. Totals: 31-62 13-21 82.

Butler 4 11 13 12—40

New Castle22 16 21 23—82

3-point goals: K.Krause, Neudorfer 3; Domenick, Salzano 2, Rudolph, Anderson, Richards 2

JV: New Castle, 62-33 (B: Eric Hindman 12, Andrew Paterno 11; NC: Tyler Fitzpatrick 12)

Tuesday: Hampton at Butler