BUTLER TWP — Nathan Barthlow scored 26 goals for the Butler boys lacrosse team while sporting a old-fashioned haircut.

He scored seven goals Wednesday with a slightly altered coif.

Barthlow and several of his teammates put hair clippers to good use last week at practice.

Instead of playoff beards, the Golden Tornado were showing off their playoff Mohawks.

"Some of us can't grow beards yet, so I guess we have to do something," Barthlow said.

There must be great power in the new do.

Butler dominated Winchester Thurston from start to finish on the way to a 16-2 win over the Bears in the first round of the WPIAL Division II playoffs at Art Bernardi Stadium.

Barthlow was a reluctant member of the Mohawk brigade.

"I gave in to peer pressure," he said. "It'll grow back."

He wasn't reluctant in front of the net Wednesday night.

Barthlow scored five of his goals in the first half as Butler stormed out to an 11-1 lead after two quarters.

Butler outshot overmatched Winchester Thurston 13-0 in the first quarter and 27-2 in the first half.

The Golden Tornado have struggled by playing down to its competition. No such problem existed Wednesday after a sluggish opening six minutes.

"You can't do it. At this point, everyone is 0-0 and upsets happen," said Butler coach Ed Swierczyk. "We just had to stay grounded and play together as a team."

Butler's offense, which is averaging nearly 14 goals a game, moved the ball well, and it reaped the benefits of that action.

Six Tornado players scored at least one goal and the team had 11 assists — six of them by Cody Bachman.

Butler outshot Winchester Thurston 43-8, and the final score would have been much worse had it not been for Bears goalie Jeff Steiner, who made 14 saves — none of them routine.

"We started a little slow, a little sloppy," Swierczyk said. "But (the Bears) called a timeout and we were able to talk to (the Tornado), regroup and run our offense. We've scored a lot of goals this year and we have a lot of contributors."

Butler now has scored 270 goals this season.

It has the players thinking big and thinking about avenging a semifinal loss to Greensburg Central Catholic last season.

"We definitely have the players to do it," Barthlow said. "We just have to go out and play our game."

That game has been shock and awe with a potent offense that can find the net rapidly, as the Tornado did Wednesday by scoring goals 8, 9 and 12 seconds apart.

"We try to score as fast as we can," Barthlow said. "When you score back to back like that, yeah, it gets in their head a little bit that we are coming for them."

Butler will play either Chartiers Valley or Erie Cathedral Prep next Wednesday at a site and time to be determined.

The layoff will be good for banged-up Butler.

Jordan Lumley is out until next week after complications from an appendectomy. Other players have bumps and bruises, Barthlow among them.

It's a physical sport and Wednesday was a physical game. It's all part of the experience, Barthlow said.

"Some of us have been playing for a while, so we're used to it," Barthlow said. "You just can't be scared of it. You just have to move. If you do that, you won't get hit as much."