PINE TWP — Justin Williams' birthday spelled doom for Butler.

Pine-Richland's junior running back, who turned 17 Friday, rushed for 178 yards and turned a screen pass into a 58-yard touchdown as the Rams defeated the Golden Tornado 28-6.

Midway through the first quarter, Williams broke off a 78-yard run before Butler's Eli Christy caught him at the 2-yard line. P-R's Aaron Kovalchick scored on a 1-yard run two plays later.

When he caught Williams from behind, Christy suffered a shoulder separation and was done for the night. On Butler's ensuing possession, Cole Baxter sustained a rib injury as he leaped into the air to try to pull down a pass.

Baxter didn't return to the game, either. The availability of both players for next week is unknown.

"We'll get them both evaluated," Butler coach Jeff McAnallen said. "That's two of our best five players knocked out of the game within minutes of each other. We lost four starting positions there."

The Tornado (0-6, 0-2) also lost momentum at the end of the first half.

Trailing 7-0, Butler faced a second-and-10 at the Rams 30-yard line with 50 seconds left in the half before quarterback Cole Harvey was intercepted by Dan Cannon, who returned the ball 15 yards to the P-R 41.

Williams ran for 14 yards on first down before the Rams (3-3, 1-1) called a timeout with the ball at the Butler 45 with 27 seconds left.

Rams quarterback Eric Kordenbrock threw a deep pass for Tommy Berexa, who outfought two Butler defenders for the football and rambled into the end zone.

"We had double coverage on him, but the kid jumped in the air and caught the ball at its highest point," McAnallen said. "Our two guys collided and went down, and he walked into the end zone."

Kordenbrock threw three touchdown passes despite completing only five of 13 throws.

"Our defense has been playing pretty good football," P-R coach Clair Altemus said. "We held North Hills scoreless for three quarters last week and allowed only seven first downs.

"Our offense came alive tonight with some big plays. That's what was encouraging to me."

Williams' 58-yard run with a screen pass came on Pine-Richland's first possession of the second half. The Rams came up short on other scoring chances earlier, missing a 42-yard field goal try and having a 40-yarder blocked.

"This is a young team we've got," Altemus said. "We're trying to do something this year and I'm hoping it leads to bigger and better things next year."

Butler got on the board early in the fourth quarter when Harvey's 1-yard plunge capped an 8-play, 70-yard march. Harvey ran for 28 yards and threw a 27-yard pass to Jarrod Oesterling to highlight the drive. The snap was botched on the PAT try.

P-R's Conor Mincher intercepted a pass and returned it 15 yards to the Butler 20 to set up Kordenbrock's 20-yard TD toss to Berexa for the Rams' final score.

Harvey led Butler's ground game with 58 yards on 11 carries.

"We had to move a lineman, Dylan O'Donnell, to the backfield. We're running out of running backs," McAnallen said.