BUTLER TWP— Playing center midfielder, Ben Horner was used to being in the middle of the action for Butler's boys soccer team.

During preseason this year, the Golden Tornado senior had to get used to no action at all.

After seeing a third doctor in as many days in search of an accurate diagnosis of a mysterious illness plaguing him, Horner learned he had a staph infection in his bloodstream — on the first day of preseason soccer camp.

"I did nothing but lay in a hospital bed for a week, then wasn't allowed to participate in any physical activity for a month," Horner said. "I missed all of preseason camp and the first three regular season games."

Horner played only 30 minutes of his first game back. In his third game back, he had three assists in a 4-1 triumph over Pine-Richland, which wound up finishing second to Butler in the section standings.

"That's when I knew Ben was all the way back,"Butler coach Troy Mohney said. "Fortunately for him, he's a player with great skills and that advantage in skill compensated for his not being in as good a shape as everybody else on the field."

That Pine-Richland game was the first full game Horner played this season.

"Coach Mohney worked me back into the lineup gradually,"Horner said. "He allowed me to build up my conditioning."

Before his illness, Horner verbally committed to Duquesne University to play soccer next year, becoming the first Butler boy in nearly 10 years to accept a Division Isoccer scholarship.

Horner wound up scoring five goals and collecting 16 assists this season. He scored eight goals and had 13 assists last year in becoming a Butler County Elite 11 selection.

He scored the lone goal in a 1-0 victory at Seneca Valley late in the 2006 campaign, a victory that put the Tornado, who finished the season 20-3-1, in position to grab their first section title since 1994.

Horner joined Wade Grubbs and Kevin McCune as Butler tri-captains this year.

"He's just one of those kids who knows what to do with the ball,"Mohney said. "It's hard to get the ball off him because he keeps his body between the ball and the defender.

"With his vision on the field, he always seems to find the open man."

Butler's game was ball possession, and Horner, along with fellow center midfielder Andrew Schnur and outside midfielders Ryan Armahizer and Jake Huey, was the anchor of that attack.

"It's an important position on the team,"Horner said. "It's the link between defense and offense."

"Our philosophy was moving the ball up the field as a team," Mohney said. "Ben was very instrumental in the execution of that."

Horner hopes to have a similar role at Duquesne after he was recruited by first-year Dukes coach Jake Ouimet.

Duquesne was 11-7-2 overall this year, 6-3 in Atlantic 10 play, in posting its fifth consecutive double-digit winning season. The Dukes have made five successive trips to the Atlantic 10 Tournament, losing in the semifinals to nationally ranked St. Louis this year.

"Coach Ouimet told me I've got a good chance of playing as a freshman, either at midfield or on defense,"Horner said.

Horner considered a number of Division I schools, including Pitt, Penn State, Bucknell, Dayton, Drexel and Northwestern. He decided on Duquesne because of its sports marketing program.

Horner carries a 4.36 grade-point average and is ranked 11th in his class academically.