BUTLER TWP — Seth Geyer just had the cast removed from his broken thumb last week.

The Mars senior running back wasted no time in inflicting pain on Butler this week.

Geyer ran 55 yards for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage Friday night as the Planets cruised to a 40-0 victory over the Golden Tornado at Art Bernardi Stadium.

The Butler County teams met for the first time since 1943, and Mars defeated Butler for the first time since 1926.

The win was the sixth straight for Mars (6-1) while the Golden Tornado (0-7) dropped their 21st in a row.

"Seth gets overshadowed by Austin Miele quite a bit, but he's a heckuva running back, too," Mars coach Scott Heinauer said. "He's just been battling some injuries.

"He had a cast on his hand for three weeks, so we've had to limit his carries."

Geyer had eight carries for 102 yards Friday while Miele had 16 carries for 118 yards and three TDs. The duo combined for 218 yards rushing in the first half alone as the Planets took a 28-0 lead into intermission.

"Turning point of the game? That first play," Butler coach Jim Rankin said. "I don't know why, but we came out incredibly flat. For some reason our kids weren't excited about playing tonight.

"That's a hard thing to explain."

Trailing 7-0 late in the first quarter, Butler generated a pair of first downs and forged into Planets territory. But Cole Baxter fumbled on first down at the Mars 44.

Brad Weischedel recovered for Mars and the Planets embarked upon an 11-play, 61-yard scoring drive that took 6 minutes, 6 seconds.

The Planets went on to score touchdowns on each of their final three possessions of the first half. Miele capped each of the drives with scoring runs of 5, 10 and 9 yards.

Each of Miele's touchdown runs were sweeps into the right corner of the end zone.

"I'm impressed by that Mars team," Rankin said. "They're big and they're physical."

Butler never got inside the Mars 45-yard line after the Weischedel fumble recovery, which was the only turnover of the game by either team.

Golden Tornado possessions were stymied early in the third quarter by tackles for loss by Dylan Bear and Elliot Woodward.

Butler was shut out for the fourth time this season. Mars has only allowed six points in its past three games.

"Our defense took control tonight," Heinauer said. "We were nervous about playing this team. They've got some athletes and they did some good things against North Hills last week.

"Our goal was to score early in the game, gain momentum and build a lead. That's the way it worked out," he added.

Josh Pinkerton and Ben Bair rushed for second-half touchdowns for the Planets as Miele and Geyer combined for only three carries in the second half.

The Butler offense managed 153 total yards. Carlos Sanchez paced the Tornado with 29 yards on six carries.

"It's going to be hard to find any positives to take from this game," Rankin admitted.

Mars attempted only three passes all night.

"We still have to work on our passing game, and I know that," Heinauer said. "But we had a good showing tonight against a Quad-A team, and I'm happy about that."