PINE TWP — Life doesn't get any easier for the Butler High School football team.

Still looking for their first offensive points in the first half this season, the Golden Tornado (0-3, 0-1) travel to Pine-Richland (2-1, 1-0) for a Quad County Conference game at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

“We have to get some offensive push up front and that hasn't happened yet,” Butler coach Eric Christy said. “Until it does, we're going to struggle to move the ball consistently.

“We're getting stalemates in some spots, but no one's winning the one-on-one battles. That has to be our next step.”

All five touchdowns scored by the Golden Tornado this season have come in the second half. Butler enjoyed its first lead of the year last Friday when Daniel Kline returned an interception 50 yards for a score and a 7-0 lead against Mt. Lebanon.

“This is a long season. We have six games left after this one,” Christy said. “We have to continue to build. We wanted to come out with a lot of energy and we did that. We had it.

“Now we need to extend that energy into two full quarters, not let any bad plays snowball against us.”

That won't be easy against a Pine-Richland team that has defeated Butler nine times in 10 meetings all-time and rolled to wins of 49-0 over Hempfield and 42-14 over Moon the past two weeks.

The Tigers scored touchdowns late last week, against the Rams' second-teamers.

“I'm very pleased with the way our defense has been playing,” P-R coach Eric Kasperowicz said. “Our linebackers, Tyler King and Anthony Cerminara, have been our anchors there.

“Our offensive and defensive lines are the strength of our team.”

The Rams' offensive front features tackle Andrew Kristofic, who is headed to Notre Dame, and guard Michael Katic, headed to Indiana of the Big Ten. Their center, Michael Dorondo, has received Ivy League offers.

Pine-Richland has a sophomore at quarterback in 5-foot-10 Cole Spencer.

“Defenses have been trying to take our away our run and are throwing pressure at Cole, trying to rattle him,” Kasperowicz said. “He still makes some sophomore mistakes, but we don't ask him to do too much.

“Cole doesn't have to win us the game. We just don't want him losing us the game. He's been playing steady football and he's learning.”

Butler has a number of players trying to get on the plus side of the learning curve. One is linebacker John Ryan Herold, who made a number of stops last week.

“J.R. is coming along and he's doing good things for us,” Christy said. “we just need more consistency there. You can say that about a number of our guys.

“We'll just line up and keep on playing. It comes down to individual confidence. You find a way to beat the guy standing in front of you.”

Byron Manchester, a sophomore, ran for 87 yards and a touchdown against Mt. Lebanon and continues to progress in learning the varsity system.

“Byron is in the same study hall as (running back) Chris Mertz and he's been learning the playbook more and more,” Christy said. “He has a lot of natural ability you can't teach, things like knowing when to cut and pulling away from people.”

Pine-Richland handed the Tornado a 64-0 loss last year. The Rams have not lost to Butler since 2012, when a 19-7 Tornado win spearheaded the team's drive to a WPIAL playoff berth.

“We know they're going to try to run the ball and Butler has tough kids,” Kasperowicz said. “We need to fuill the gaps defensively and makes plays offensively when we get the opportunity.”