ERIE — As the end of the first half of Butler’s Friday night 52-12 loss at McDowell drew to a close, there was a faint echo of the Butler cheerleaders chanting, “We believe in Butler.” Now one week closer to having to answer some questions, the biggest one has become, how do you make everyone believe?

It’s no easy task. Neither is taking on the five-time defending 6A District 10 champions.

The challenge became even steeper after Butler had to throw away its offensive gameplan after their starting quarterback didn’t make it through warmups.

“It completely changed everything that we were going to do, and we didn’t know it was going to happen until pregame,” Butler coach Eric Christy said. “But Tyson (Pino) did a great job of being thrown into a tough spot.”

It took McDowell little time to show why it’s become the powerhouse that they have, however. On the first drive alone, they converted multiple third and long situations. After the first drive alone, the Trojans had over 100 yards of total offense. Their opening drive culminated in a five-yard touchdown strike from Blayze Myers to Jackson Johns.

“We joked around and said we had 182 yards on the first drive, but the negative side was that we had two bad penalties and a bad snap,” McDowell head coach Bo Orlando said. “The positive was that we had a few big third and long conversions, but you can’t have those mistakes this late in the season.”

The plan for the Trojans seemed to be very simple from the start. They wanted to attack the Golden Tornado through the air. Last week against Cathedral Prep, Butler struggled with containing the run, but against McDowell, it seemed that were getting the stops on the ground when they needed to Golden Tornado.

A nine-play drive ended with Stephon Porter punching in the ball from four yards out. Eighteen seconds later, Leo Whitaker took the ball in for a 31-yard touchdown reception after Pino threw a pick on the first play of their drive.

For Christy though, this game was huge in getting experience for the younger players.

“We got a lot of kids on the field, we had freshmen and sophomores on the field and some of them were on the field early on,” Christy said. “We had some good moments and some bad moments, but it was nice to have kids in getting playing time.”

While the results may not have shown on the scoreboard, it could be felt how much of a difference it made just a week after allowing 54 points in the first half. But with inexperience, comes hiccups.

Butler turned the ball over four times in the game, with the second one being crucial. Landon Lacey broke free for 29 yards on the second play of their third drive. One play later, he earned another 15. Just like that, Butler was within striking distance. It had the opportunity to bring the game back to within two scores.

All of it was for naught, however. Just two plays later, the Golden Tornado fumbled and gave the ball back to McDowell.

It took McDowell eight plays to turn its lead into 28 after Porter punched the ball in for the second time. Butler’s next drive was another costly fumble, and a game that could’ve been 21-7 was all of a sudden a 35-0 hole after Myers hit James Zigler Jr. for a 15-yard touchdown.

From there forward, the Trojan offense saw the end zone just once more. But the deficit was already too large.

In the second half, Butler changed the offense around to get more young players touches. Many of them were able to make the most of them, including Mark Klemz who took the ball 57 yards for a score on his first carry.

Butler’s other touchdown was scored by Nicholas Baggetta with just under two minutes left in the game. Christy felt that both were big for taking steps forward with the program in a year that has seen many ups and downs.

“We’ve been trying to send the message of do the right thing, whether it’s on the field or in school, saying the right things or working harder and approaching things differently,” Christy said. “If we can get a collective group that’s doing the right thing, we’ll progress and move forward and take another step.”

With just one week left and uncertainty lying ahead though, Orlando would love to see Butler continue to compete in the D10 and progress forward.

“For us we’re in unique situation because we don’t have a big league, so for us to play like Butler is huge,” Orlando said. “They’re a quality team who we’ve gotten to play and our kids have gotten up for it, so I wish they could stay in D10.”

Butler 0 0 6 6 — 12

McDowell 21 21 3 7 — 52

First Quarter

M- Jackson Johns 5 from Blayze Myers (Alex Sontheimer kick), 7:49

M- Stephon Porter 4 run (Alex Sontheimer kick), 2:27

M- Leo Whitaker 31 from Myers (Alex Sontheimer kick), 2:09

Second Quarter

M- Stephon Porter 1 run (Alex Sontheimer kick),), 9:42

M- James Zigler Jr. 15 from Myers (Alex Sontheimer kick), 8:41

M- Dominic Berarducci 1 run (Alex Sontheimer kick), 4:45

Third Quarter

M- Alex Sontheimer 18 field goal, 6:08

B- Mark Klemz 57 run (kick failed), 5:06

Fourth Quarter

M- Kameron Bastow 48 interception (Alex Sontheimer kick), 8:29

B- Nicholas Baggetta 1 run (kick failed), 1:48

Individual Statistics

Rushing: McDowell, Dominic Beraducci 6-88, Blayze Myers 4-42, Bobby Blue 4-19, Stephon Porter 3-14, Eric Neavins 3-14, Brayden Litz 2- 8, Willie Murel 2-1, Lucas Sult 1-(-6), Team 2-(-29). Butler, Mark Klemz 4-89, Landon Lacey 5-55, Nicholas Baggetta 6-28, Anthony Salmon 2-24, Max Rihn 4-17, Keegan Bracken 2-9, David Graef 7-3, Tyson Pino 1-(-4).

Passing: McDowell, Blayze Myers 13-16-193, Matt Herbe 1-1-1. Butler, Tyson Pino 2-7-2, Landon Lacey 0-1.

Receiving: McDowell, Jackson Johns 2-47, Leo Whitakerr 1-31, Jake Hower 2-27, Daymar Dickerson 1-27, Jaden Bujnowski 2-21, Dominic Beraducci 3-16, James Zigler Jr. 1-15, Brady Kramer 1-9, Anthony Voto 1-1. Butler, Ian Wilson 1-14.