How Butler football dominated Meadville in road win with defense, Mark Klemz’s bruising running
MEADVILLE — Before the rain came the Tornado.
During the first half of Butler football’s 35-11 win at Meadville Friday night, Alec Teff threw a pair of touchdowns, Mark Klemz plowed in for another and Tyson Pino’s 81-yard interception return for a score highlighted a strong defensive effort.
That all preceded a downpour that began almost exactly at the second quarter’s final whistle. A weather delay pushed back the second half an extra half hour.
“Everybody that was here before the rain came saw what I saw — Butler is a better football team than us, that’s plain and simple,” Meadville coach Raymond Collins said. “We didn’t have an answer for anything they did. They were more aggressive than us. They were more physical than us. They executed better than us. They pushed us all over the place.
“Butler clearly deserved to win that football game.”
Defensively, the Golden Tornado allowed the Bulldogs (2-1) just 86 yards from scrimmage over the first 24 minutes. Meadville entered the game with a tandem of players — Jordan Lawrence and Jacoby Thompson — who’d combined for 432 rushing yards during the first two weeks of the season.
Butler (2-1) set the tone early, with Teff’s 17-yard connection with Preston Simko moving the sticks on a fourth-and-8 from the hosts’ 31-yard line. Two plays later, Teff hit Jacob Kollinger for a 13-yard touchdown.
“It tells me that we’re coming out here to win,” Teff said of the decision to go for it so early in the contest. “We’re coming out here to score seven points every drive — score a touchdown every drive. That’s the goal. It feels great that all the coaches have that confidence in me to be able to lead the offense on fourth-and-8. It feels great that they have the confidence in all of our guys to be able to do that.”
“That’s what we’re trying to do,” Golden Tornado coach Eric Christy said. “That game, how it went for that (first) half, we were controlling the line of scrimmage. We just wanted to keep it going.”
Klemz rushed for 50 yards on that seven-play, 65-yard drive alone. He finished the game with 174 yards and a pair of scores on 20 totes.
“He was running people over, he was making people miss,” Teff said. “He had some great cuts in traffic today.”
The Bulldogs drove 53 yards before settling for a field goal on their first series. They went three-and-out on the next, and Simko traversed the field off a Teff pass for a 70-yard score three snaps later.
After another quick Meadville possession, a fumble cut short Butler’s attempt at four touchdowns in four tries. Pino made up for it three plays later by picking Thompson off.
The Bulldogs’ only other points were on a blocked punt that ended up being a safety and a late AJ Feleppa touchdown pass to Amari Grenaway. The Golden Tornado rumbled for 108 yards in the second half with a mix of Klemz, Kollinger, Nico Baggetta and Leo Iarrapino.
“I think it’s only going up from here,” Teff said. “In the offseason ... we had a whole new strength and conditioning program. I think that’s worked. You can see every guy on our team is kind of bullying kids now, which is a nice thing to see.
“The confidence is just steadily increasing, but we’re not done yet.”
Christy stressed a need to quickly reshift the focus so not to lose any momentum.
“I’m happy for this week, this game,” Christy said. “We’ve got to start Monday and get ready for another really good Hollidaysburg team. We’ve got to make another long trip. These guys have got to get focused and enjoy this one this weekend.”
Butler 7 21 0 7 — 28
Meadville 3 0 2 6 — 11
First Quarter
B — Jacob Kollinger 13 pass from Alec Teff (Alex Morris kick), 8:56
M — Simon Farrelly-Jackson 26 field goal, 2:36
Second Quarter
B — Mark Klemz 4 run (Morris kick), 9:56
B — Preston Simko 70 pass from Teff (Morris kick), 6:17
B — Tyson Pino 81 interception (Morris kick), 0:20
Third Quarter
M — Nico Baggetta safety tackled by Hudson Palmeiro, 8:10
Fourth Quarter
B — Klemz 1 run (Morris kick), 11:47
M — Amari Grenaway 15 pass from AJ Feleppa (Jordan Lawrence run failed), 6:15
Individual Statistics:
Rushing: Butler, Mark Klemz 20-174, Jacob Kollinger 11-34, Nico Baggetta 11-38, Leo Iarrapino 2-5, Alec Teff 2-3. Meadville, Jordan Lawrence 12-57, Amari Grenaway 9-37, Jacoby Thompson 6-4.
Passing: Butler, Alec Teff 7-11-130-0. Meadville, AJ Feleppa 6-7-92-0, Jacoby Thompson 1-4-8-1.
Receiving: Butler, Preston Simko 3-94, Quinlan Hanley 1-13, Jacob Kollinger 1-13, Marcus Vicari 1-7, Mark Klemz 1-3. Meadville, Amari Grenaway 4-43, Jacoby Thompson 1-38, Tymir Phillips 2-19.
