PINE TWP — Ben DiNucci did his damage early again — with help from his friends.

Pine-Richland's senior quarterback completed 16 of 21 passes for 363 yards and three touchdowns in the first half alone Friday night, leading his team to a 48-10 home Northern Eight football victory over Butler.

DiNucci completed all 15 of his passes for 337 yards and four touchdowns against Seneca Valley last week.

Many of his passes were flares or quick tosses over the middle that DiNucci's receivers turned into big plays.

“That's how our offense works,” Pine-Richland coach Eric Kasperowicz said. “Spread the field, make the defense cover it, get the ball to our athletes in space and see what they can do with it.”

Butler coach Rob Densmore — who still teaches at Pine-Richland and was defensive coordinator there for years — knew what was coming.

The Golden Tornado just couldn't stop it.

“I know the kind of athletes that are here,” Densmore said. “If we didn't make tackles in open space, it was gonna be a long night.

“I tip my hat top Coach Kasperowicz and what he has going on over here. That is a great team.”

DiNucci had touchdown passes of 53 yards to Mike Merhaut, 24 and 53 yards to D'ondre Gastion in the first half. Both 53-yard scoring places came on short passes toward the sideline.

The Rams (7-0, 6-0) had 425 yards of offense in the first half. Butler (2-5, 1-4) was limited to 66.

“You always hear about that offense, but their defense is outstanding,” Densmore said. “They're holding teams to 13.2 points per game and a lot of that is against their second-teamers.”

DiNucci and the first team offense left the game with 8:48 remaining. DiNucci threw for 387 yards and rushed for two touchdowns himself.

Connor Slomka ran for 73 yards and a pair of scores.

The Rams might have scored more points in the first half, but Gastion dropped a certain touchdown pass well beind the defense on third-and-14 to begin the game.

Butler defenders Jeremy Hanford and Robert Burdine delivered hard hits to blow up the Rams' first two plays of the night.

“Butler came out and hit us hard right away,” Kasperowicz said. “We were a little sloppy early, but got it together against an improving program.

“We crunched some numbers this week. In terms of points scored and points allowed this year compared to last, Butler is the fourth most improved team in the WPIAL. We weren't going to take them lightly.”

The Tornado avoided the shutout in the fourth quarter. With Pine-Richland's first-string defense still in the game, Butler marched 60 yards in 13 plays, setting up a 37-yard Devin Fitz field goal.

Justin Johnson recovered a fumble by the Rams' reserve unit and returned it 17 yards for a score with 4:01 to play.

“We were looking for some positives to take into our game at Fox Chapel next week,” Densmore said. “That game may have playoffs on the line for us. It's a big one.

“We'll let this one go and get ready for that one.”

Tim Vernick paced the Tornado offense with 72 yards on 16 carries. Danmien Pickett played only the first series after spraining an ankle in practice this week.

“He couldn't make his cuts and wasn't able to run like we needed him to, so we made the change,” Densmore said.

“After I put my subs in, he (Kasperowicz) called timeout and put his subs in, too. That was a classy move. I appreciated that.”

Kasperowicz said his subs were going in regardless.

“I called the timeout to give our fans a chance to applaud our seniors one more time as they left the field on Senior Night,” he said. “That's a specal group.

“But, yeah, I respectCoach Densmore a lot. He's already doing a great job at Butler.”