WEST VIEW — One bad apple can’t spoil the whole bunch, but one bad quarter can.

North Hills erupted for four touchdowns in the second quarter — three on Jake Bruder passes — to break a scoreless tie Friday night at Martorelli Stadium. The Indians went on to post a 35-7 Northern Eight football victory over Butler.

Bruder threw touchdown passes of 4 and 48 yards to Andrew Bly and 21 yards to Kindhal Taylor. He threw for 159 of his 166 yards in the first half. The Indians’ other score was on an 8-yard blocked punt return by Brandon Wagner.

“We lost our minds for about five minutes there,” Butler coach Rob Densmore said. “We need to stop doing that.”

Three of North Hills’ scores came in the final five minutes of the half. The Golden Tornado (1-2, 0-1) surrendered 21 points in the first 10 minutes of their season-opening 28-10 loss at Altoona.

Butler’s offense managed only two first downs in the entire first half, failing to get untracked after losing Butler County’s rushing leader Damien Pickett to a sprained ankle in the first quarter. Pickett had six carries for 20 yards before departing.

“We don’t know how bad it is just yet,” Densmore said. “Our trainer evaluated the injury on the sidelines and determined the ankle wasn’t strong enough for Damien to go. So he didn’t go.

“He’ll be further evaluated over the weekend and we’ll go from there.”

The Tornado tried different combinations in the backfield after Pickett’s injury. Lucas Dubyak wound up Butler’s leading rusher with 26 yards. The Tornado rushed for just 66 yards as a team.

“Losing Pickett clearly hurt. He’s a difference-maker for them,” North Hills coach Pat Carey said. “He would have made a difference in this game tonight.”

Butler missed a chance to score first in the contest as Jared Hinkle recovered a fumble at the North Hills 32-yard line on the game’s second snap from scrimmage. The Tornado generated one first down, but Devin Fitz’s 31-yard field goal attempt sailed wide right.

North Hills drove 67 yards in 11 plays for the game’s first points, the 4-yard scoring pass to Bly. Bly had four catches for 84 yards in the first half for the Indians (3-0, 2-0). He did not play in the second half.

Wagner’s blocked punt and touchdown return opened the floodgates.

“We don’t normally go after punts, but we noticed they’ve been having trouble with snaps and we wanted to get some pressure back there,” Carey said. “I’m not sure how our kid got in there so cleanly.”

Reid Werth intercepted a pass and Eric Hindman recovered a fumble for Butler. Hindman’s recovery was at the Indians’ 13 and set up the Tornado’s lone score of the night. Jamison Smith lofted a 13-yard touchdown pass to Kelley Kuharic, who beat single coverage in the right corner of the end zone with 8:28 to play.

Smith threw for 71 yards, completing seven passes in the second half. The touchdown spoiled North Hills’ bid for a fifth successive shutout of Butler.

“Our passing game is coming along. We need it as a complement to our running game and we made some strides tonight,” Densmore said.

“They stopped our running game and I thought we would stop theirs. That didn’t happen.”

Nick Santucci had 24 carries for 177 yards for North Hills, including a 60-yard scoring burst in the fourth quarter.

“Their defense hit us hard all night and pursued to the ball,” Carey said. “We had trouble moving it in the second half. Coach Desmore is doing a good job with those kids.”

Butler suffered four turnovers on the night in losing to North Hills for the 14th straight time. Taylor and Wagner had interceptions for the Indians whie Jake Buccigrossi and Ke’Tron Shelton recovered fumbles.