ERIE — The last week has been eventful for Butler.

The school district recently proposed the idea of “relegation” for struggling teams to the PIAA. Less than a week later, the Golden Tornado traveled to the middle of Erie to play Cathedral Prep.

The proposal essentially was made to help even the playing field for Butler, which last had a winning season in 1997, when current head coach Eric Christy was a quarterback of the team. Since then, wins have been few and far between.

The story was no different on Friday night in Erie as Cathedral Prep’s big first half gave them a 54-7 win. It took just two minutes for Cathedral Prep to get on the board. The Ramblers were without their starting running back, but it didn’t matter much. Dajoure Hollingsworth stepped into the role and made a case for why he should be the starter.

“They did a nice job of finding the pass if we tried to stack the box to slow him down,” Christy said. “Whenever we would put an extra guy in to stop him, they’d beat us through the air, and when we took that guy out, they beat us with the inside run.”

The Ramblers combined for six rushing touchdowns in the game. All three of Hollingsworth’s were 46 yards or more.

Butler couldn’t find their way to the first-down marker in the first quarter, which led to the Tornado giving the ball back quick. Before they blinked, Cathedral Prep was up 26-0, thanks to Luke Costello and Hollingsworth each having a pair of scores in the first.

“Cathedral Prep is building and they’re stilling trying to find their identity, and they found a little bit more tonight,” Christy said.

That identity was found on the defensive end. Just two players had double-digit yards for Butler: Braylon Littlejohn and Max Rihn. Littlejohn was responsible for two of Butler’s four first downs in the game.

At the half, Prep led by 54 points. Hollingsworth scored on the opening play of the second quarter, and a little over a minute later, Maxim Spencer caught a deep pass for a 49-yard touchdown strike from Costello. Corey Allen and Shabel Latouf had the other scores for Prep.

Butler’s lone score came with 1:45 left in the third quarter when Evan Reinsel punched the ball in from five yards out.

The story comes back to one thing. As a decision looms for the Golden Tornado as to what is going to happen next year, they made one thing clear. Despite the losses, the goal to rebuild the program remains the same, even if it has to happen in a different district, conference or classification.

“People are allowed to talk, that’s the beauty of the country we live in and when someone isn’t in our community it’s probably easy to judge and say things,” Christy said. “People who are in it know the effort put in by our administration, athletic director, the players and the parents…there’s a large number of people trying to come together and put this ship in the right direction and so we’re going to continue that fight.”

Butler 0 0 7 0

Cathedral Prep 26 28 0 0

First Quarter

C — Dajoure Hollingsworth 50 run (Andrew Costello kick failed), 10:15

C — Luke Costello 3 run (Andrew Costello kick failed), 7:50

C — Luke Costello 13 run (Andrew Costello kick), 5:08

C — Dajoure Hollingsworth 46 run (Andrew Costello kick), 2:18

Second Quarter

C — Dajoure Hollingsworth 52 run (Andrew Costello kick), 11:49

C — Maxim Spencer 49 from Luke Costello (Andrew Costello kick), 10:27

C — Corey Allen 48 from Luke Costello (Andrew Costello kick), 7:57

C — Charbel Latouf 58 run (Andrew Costello kick), 5:09

Third Quarter

B — Evan Reinsel 5 run (Christian Mortimer kick), 1:45

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Cathedral Prep, Dajoure Hollingsworth 5-163, Charbel Latouf 2-104, Montay Hollingsworth 4-56, Luke Costello 3-21, Maxwell Spaulding 2-19, Rayfes Roberts Jr. 1-15, Jacob Koshan 3- (-3), Eric Cox 2- (-5), Caden Carrara 2- (-8), Davin Friedman 1- (-10). Butler, Landon Lacey 9-17, Evan Reinsel 3-17, Max Rihn 1-13, Mark Klemz 3-11, Jacob Kollinger 2-5, Nicholas Baggetta 3-4, Alex Catalfano 1- (-2).

Passing: Cathedral Prep, Luke Costello 5-9-129, Davin Friedman 3-7-16. Butler, Alec Teff 6-20-11-1, Tyson Pino 0-1-1.

Receiving: Cathedral Prep, Maxim Spence 1-49, Corey Allen 3-79, Daniel Oblich 1-10, Griffin Potts 1-5, Christian Cosme Jr., 1-2, Caden Carrara 1-0.