MT. LEBANON — Butler was plagued from the beginning.

Injuries to a handful of starters before the game, along with a top-tier opponent in Mt. Lebanon gave Butler a losing hand from the start.

The Golden Tornado managed just one first down in the first half of a 63-7 loss to the Blue Devils Friday night at Mt. Lebanon Stadium.

“We had a couple starters down, and we didn't know until late in the week,” Butler coach Eric Christy said. “We put a lot of guys out there who didn't have the reps and they were thrown onto the stage and it's a big stage.”

On the first play from scrimmage, Butler quarterback Cooper Baxter was intercepted by Jack Sullivan.

The interception set up the first of three touchdowns by running back Mason Ventrone just two minutes into the game.

Ventrone ended the game with 88 rushing yards on just six carries.

“You could tell they had a lot of injuries,” Mt. Lebanon coach Bob Palko said. “We're still new, too, and we got things to work on. We just jumped on them.”

The Blue Devils certainly jumped on the Golden Tornado, scoring 28 points in the first quarter before ultimately taking a 49-0 lead into halftime.

“Mt. Lebo is a great team,” Christy said. “We gave them what we could and they're just a quality team.”

With a running clock to start the second half, the Blue Devils were still hungry, scoring under two minutes into the third quarter to make the score 56-0.

Mt. Lebanon (2-1, 2-0) would add another touchdown in the fourth.

With just under three minutes to play in the game, the Golden Tornado finally got on the board on a 64-yard touchdown pass from Baxter to Charles Kreinbucher.

Sophomore running back Isaiah Kelly rushed for 58 yards on 17 carries and offered a few decent runs in the loss.

“(Kelly) had some good news and bad,” Christy said. “We're still working with him. We liked early how he ran with his head down, but then he started dancing too much.”

In a blowout game like this one, it does give both teams an opportunity to activate some players like Kelly who don't see the field as much.

“We see these guys all the time in practice, but out here it's different,” Palko said.

Butler (0-3, 0-1) will host Pine-Richland next week.

Pine-Richland defeated Moon Friday night, 46-9.

Butler 0 0 0 7 — 7

Mt. Lebanon 28 21 7 7 — 63

First Quarter

ML — Mason Ventrone 10 run (Casey Sorsdakl kick), 10:00

ML — Ventrone 7 run (Sorsdal kick), 6:11

ML — Drew Vaughn 5 run (Sorsdal kick), 3:53

ML — Sam Rolfsen 3 run (Sorsdal kick), 1:14

Second Quarter

ML — Ventrone 53 run (Sorsdal kick), 10:54

ML — Vaughn 1 run (Sorsdal kick), 6:56

ML — Sam LaSota 74 pass from Joey Daniels (Sorsdal kick), 1:46

Third Quarter

ML — Visawn Pennix 15 run (Sorsdal kick), 10:06

Fourth Quarter

ML — Jack Smith 17 run (Sorsdal kick), 8:04

B — Charles Kreinbucher 64 pass from Cooper Baxter (Emerson Douthett kick), 2:56

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Butler, Cooper Baxter 17-78, Isaiah Kelly 17-58, Julian Jones 1-1, Efwen Orloski 1-2. Mt. Lebanon, Mason Ventrone 6-88, Evan Jones 1-33, Sam Rolfsen 2-4, Drew Vaughn 4-47, Visawn Pennix 5-90, Cortland Peer 3-15, Jack Smith 1-17, Louie Pietragallo 2-21.

Passing: Butler, Cooper Baxter 3-15-72-1. Mt. Lebanon, Joey Daniels 5-7-120-1, Evan Jones 1-2-26-0, Jack Smith 1-2-17-0.

Receiving: Butler, Dylan Fediaczko 1-2, Anthony Daviduk 1-6, Charles Kreinbucher 1-64. Mt. Lebanon, Eli Heidenreich 2-15, Sam Rolfsen 1-26, Joey King 1-6, Evan Jones 1-5, Sam LaSota 1-74, Brodie Campbell 1-17.