This is one in a series of previews of Butler County area high school football games this FridayBUTLER TWP — Get ready for a battle of wills.Altoona knows what Butler wants to do Friday night. Butler is going to try to do it anyway.The two teams hook up in the Golden Tornado's 2017 home football opener at 7:30 p.m at Art Bernardi Stadium.“To win games in our league, you have to be able to stop the run,” Altoona coach Nick Felus said. “Butler will be a very similar opponent to us in that regard.“They are going to try to run the football on us and we're going to try to stop them.”The Tornado (0-1) did not do a good job of running the ball last Friday, managing just 2.3 yards per carry. Butler backs carried the ball 39 times for 91 yards.Logan Dubyak led the way with seven carries for 49 yards. He also caught two passes for 36 in Butler's 54-21 loss at Penn Hills..“Jake Kradel is the only senior up front for us who started last year,” Butler coach Rob Densmore said. “Everyone else is a first-year starter and they got their feet wet last week.“A lot of times, you make your greatest improvement in high school football from Week 1 to Week 2. We have to create our identity. It certainly wasn't last week or the previous week against Knoch (scrimmage).”Densmore admitted that “we simply didn't play well, no excuses” in those two outings.“Logan Dubyak and Luke Michalek had very good games last week. We need the other nine guys out there to follow their lead and I think they will,” Densmore said.Altoona returns seven starters on both sides of the ball from a 2-8 season a year ago. One of the Mountain Lions' losses was a 21-12 decision to Butler.Altoona defeated the Tornado 19-17 and 28-10 the previous two seasons.“Kradel is an outstanding player and we need to know where he lines up at all times,” Felus said. “He can make game-changing plays.“Butler is a physical team and they are big up front. We have to be ready for a physical game.”The Mountain Lions (1-1) generated more than 500 yards of offense in a season-opening 35-34 win over Allderdice. They were shut out, 24-0, by Norwin last week.Altoona quarterback Braeden Burchfield has thrown for nearly 400 yards in two games, including 290 against Allderdice. Cam Pascik is his leading receiver.Mitchell Lawhead rushed for 119 yards against Allderdice and Tyler Petucci carried for 86 yards against Norwin.“They should have punched the ball in a couple of times against Norwin,” Densmore said.Felus agreed.“We ran 35 offensive plays in the first half,” the coach said. “We just didn't finish. It was frustrating.“Petuicci and Lawhead pretty much divide up the carries for us. And our quarterback is a dual threat, running and throwing.“Braeden is a senior and a leader. We give our quarterback a lot of freedom with reads and he's been doing well there,” Felus added.Densmore said Altoona's offense is a lot of “zone reads and option stuff.”“They'll spread you out, but they like to run the ball, too,” he said. “Defending their type of offense is responsibility football.“That means we have to do a lot of growing up this week. I'm counting on that.”