IRWIN— Special teams can do special things. Just ask Norwin.

Three of the Knights' first four touchdowns were set up by or scored on special teams plays Friday night as Norwin posted a 35-7 high school football victory over Butler.

"It's a good thing, too, because our offense looked very sluggish tonight,"Norwin coach Dan Conwell said. "Butler might have had something to do with that.

"They gave us some defensive looks we weren't expecting."

Norwin (2-0) got on the scoreboard first one play after Adam Dominick blocked a Golden Tornado punt. Matt Griffith scored on a 14-yard run less than three minutes into the game.

Butler (0-2) produced a pivotal special teams play of its own shortly thereafter, however, when T.J. Lesniewski pounced on a fumbled punt by Griffith near midfield.

Two plays later, Cameron McDonald-Cahill raced 50 yards for the Tornado's first points of the 2007 season.

"We caught them in a blitz there and Cameron made a great cut to get outside,"Butler coach Jeff McAnallen said. "Once he was in the open field, he was gone."

Butler's celebration didn't last long.

Tyler Lukart returned the kickoff 55 yards to the Butler 27-yard line, setting up Griffith's 1-yard run that capped a five-play drive for a 14-7 Norwin lead,

"I didn't expect the special teams problems we had tonight,"McAnallen said. "That hurt us bad."

The Knights put together a 61-yard scoring drive late in the first half. Quarterback Alex Dennison found Dominick deep down the left sideline for a 37-yard touchdown pass with 1:05 left.

Butler missed a scoring chance early in the second quarter. The Tornado's Josh Reddick recovered a fumble by Griffith at the Knights 20-yard line, but quarterback Cole Harvey was sacked by James Tripp on second down, and the Tornado eventually turned the ball over on downs.

Griffith partially atoned for his fumbles by returning the second-half kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown.

Norwin's active linebackers bedeviled the Tornado all night. Butler had nine running plays result in negative yardage, had a handful of other plays stopped for no gain and managed only two first downs in the second half.

On one play, Harvey was drilled to the turf by blitzing middle linebacker Urban as he threw a deep pass. Harvey writhed on the turf in pain and was helped to the sideline after the third-down incompletion, but he returned to the game.

"With the skill and experience they have at the linebacking position ... we had a tough time blocking them all night,"McAnallen admitted.

McDonald-Cahill led Butler's attack with 13 carries for 78 yards, 50 of those coming on his touchdown run.

Harvey threw for only 30 yards, gaining all of that on a 30-yard completion to Nathan Neff in the second half.