BUTLER TWP — Butler football held a 17-point lead at halftime and had scored on a long 65-yard touchdown run.

But the early lead evaporated, as did the Tornado’s hope of a third win at the halfway point of the season, as Westinghouse stormed back for a 28-17 win Friday night at Art Bernardi Stadium.

In the fourth quarter down one score, the home team was for what would be a go-ahead touchdown.

But any hopes of staving off a second-half collapsed were derailed for Butler when the drive ended on a Markius Richardson interception in the middle of the field.

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Butler quarterback Alec Teff was on target, but the pass was tipped up in the air and returned 65 yards to the house to turn a 20-17 Westinghouse lead into a 28-17 advantage after a good two-point conversion.

“You get a ball that kind of bounces up in the air in a weird, freaky way and that’s just the game of football,” Butler head coach Eric Christy said.

Just one drive later, Richardson struck again, intercepting Teff while he tried to move the ball downfield quickly down two scores.

Teff finished with 197 yards passing and was effective both from his drop in the pocket and while on the move but was forced to throw on the run slightly more due to Westinghouse bottling up the run.

“They were stuffing the box and bringing their safeties up, so because they were coming inside, we got Alec outside,” Christy said.

Westinghouse’s defense put safeties near the line of scrimmage against the run, part of the game plan but also to account for Bulldogs rushing talent. Mark Klemz, off to the fastest start for a Butler running back since 2017, finished with 14 carries for 48 yards.

“It’s both, I would be remiss if I didn’t say that,” Green said.

One of Butler’s main offensive threats, receiver Preston Simko, went down early in the game with an ankle injury. Tyson Pino, Nicco Baggetta and Quinlan Hanley stepped up in his absence to keep the Golden Tornadoes' offense in the game.

“The players just, when their number was called, they made the play,” Christy said.

Butler was also helped by Klemz, who ripped off a 65-yard touchdown run which, at the time, put Butler up 14-0 after the extra point.

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The Golden Tornadoes kept it much closer than Westinghouse’s last three foes, who lost to the Bulldogs in shutouts by 52-plus points. Green made sure to point out the strides the Butler program has made under Christy.

“Coach Christy does an amazing job with those guys. I mean, he’s really turned that program around,” Green said. “Coach Christy is one of my favorite people in the world, he’s an amazing person and what he is doing to this program is just absolutely amazing, so we knew they were going to have a game plan dialed up to challenge some of our concepts, but the guys just had to anchor down. They had to get back to the basics, read their keys and they were flying to the ball.”

Butler 0 17 0 0 - 17

Westinghouse 0 0 14 14 – 28

First quarter

B – Nicco Baggetta 1 run (A.J. Morris kick), 11:26

B – Mark Klemz 65 run (Morris kick), 8:21

B – AJ Morris 20 field goal, 2:44

Third quarter

W – Khalil Green 39 run (Green pass failed), 9:41

W – Khalil Green 1 run (Jaylen Stanford, pass from Green), 7:07

Fourth quarter

W – Lloyd Penn 27 pass from Green (2 point fail), 9:10

W – Markius Richardson 65 interception return (Green run), 2:06

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Butler, Mark Klemz 14-88, Jacob Kollinger 14-11, Nicco Baggetta 4-13, Alec Teff 1-(-11). Westinghouse Khalil Mitchell 8-52, Lenny Wicks Jr. 7-69, Khalil Green 6-54.

Passing: Butler, Alec Teff 18-30-197-2. Westinghouse, Khalil Green 11-20-133

Receiving: Butler, Tyson Pino 4-48, Preston Simko 1-17, Nicco Baggetta 3-30, Jacob Kollinger 3-26, Mark Klemz 2-7, Quinlan Hanley 5-69. Westinghouse, Lloyd Penn 6-102, Lenny Wicks Jr. 1-3, Jaylen Stanford 3-24, Tyrese Davis 1-4

Editor's note: This story was corrected 10 a.m. Saturday to reflect Butler led at halftime 17-0.