BUTLER TWP — This game wasn't much of one.

The Butler County Bears scored four touchdowns in the first 12 minutes, led 48-0 by halftime and throttled the Columbiana County Scourge, 69-0, in Heartland Football League play Saturday night at Art Bernardi Stadium.

The game was called after three quarters when the visiting Scourge, a first-year program, were down to 10 players. They began the contest with 16.

“You're not allowed to play with 10,” Scourge player-coach Garrett Sevek said. “We'd have kept playing otherwise.”

All but one of the 10 Bears' touchdowns was a running play. A-C Valley graduate Dillon Montgomery returned an interception 50 yards for a score in the second quarter.

Montgomery nearly returned a pick for a touchdown earlier, but was tackled at the 2-yard line following a 38-yard return.

The Scourge (0-3) began training camp with 42 players and had 22 when the season started. They've been outscored 159-8 through three games.

“I told their coach not to give up, that there's going to be a lot of naysayers telling him he can't do it,” Bears coach Kirk Bergbigler said about starting a semi-pro team. “We've been there. We started our first season with 26 guys, they had 22.

“We never had to stop a game because of not having enough players, but that can happen at this level. The guys they had on the field, they kept fighting.”

While the Bears' defense has been effective all season, their offense came to life Saturday night. Butler County rushed for 226 yards in the first half and seven different players scored rushing touchdowns.

Defensively, the Bears limited Columbiana County to a net offense of one yard. Scourge quarterback Daniel Talbott was sacked seven times, with linebackers Justin Switzer (Karns City) and Justin Sanderson (Moniteau) in on many of them. Chad Krumpe had four sacks as well.

“This game was a confidence booster for our offense,” Switzer said. “We needed this. All of us can feel good about this effort.

“Those guys (Scourge) earned our respect. They never wanted us to back off, so we kept coming.”

The Bears were blitzing in the third quarter despite the lopsided score.

“Welcome to football. We had no problem with that,” Sevek said. “If we're out here, we're playing. Most of our guys are from Youngstown and some of the toughest football around is played there.

“I'm grateful to Butler because they never stopped bringing it. If they had ... that would have been worse.”

The Bears (2-1) had four touchdowns called back by penalties: a 75-yard kick return by Eugene Clark, 65-yard punt return by Steve Cupec, 58-yard run by Clark and a 44-yard fumble return by Randy Snow.

Columbiana County had five turnovers and the Bears' longest scoring drive of the night was 58 yards. Besides Montgomery's two interceptions, Harry Burke and Randall Palakovich had picks and Krumpe recovered a fumble.

“We wanted to work on our running game tonight because we're only going to go as far as our offensive line takes us in this league,” Bergbigler said. “We cheered our offensive line from the sidelines every time we scored.”

Starting quarterback and Karns City graduate Erik Fuhrer only played in the first quarter. Bob Manno, who was a quarterback at Slippery Rock University 20 years ago, finished up.

“Erik is still our starter,” Bergbigler said. “We saw no reason to keep him out there in a situation like this.”

The Bears do not return home until June 30, hosting the Lake Erie Invaders at 7 p.m.

Columbiana Cty — 0 0 0 x — 0

Butler County — 28 20 21 x — 69

First Quarter

BCB — Justin Sanderson 4 run (Justin Majocha kick), 11:58

BCB — Steve Cupec 48 run (Majocha kick), 6:18

BCB — Harry Burke 2 run (Majocha kick), 5:20

BCB — Matt Robinson 4 run (Majocha kick), 3:00

Second Quarter

BCB — Bob Manno 8 run (Majocha kick), 13:09

BCB — Eugene Clark 2 run (Majocha kick), 8:13

BCB — Dillon Montgomery 50 interception return (kick failed), 6:28

Third Quarter

BCB — Robinson 2 run (Majocha kick), 11:58

BCB — Clark 6 run (Majocha kick), 4:18

BCB — Antawane Davis 1 run (Majocha kick), :51.9

Team Statistics

First Downs — Columbiana County 3, Bears 12

Rushes Attempts-Yards — Columbia County 18-(-47), Bears 28-264

Passing Yards — Columbia County 48, Bears 63

Plays-Yards — Columbiana County 33-1, Bears 37-326

Penalties — Columbiana County 3-15, Bears 8-65

Individual Statistics

Passing — Columbiana County, Daniel Talbott 4-15-48-3. Bears, Eric Fuhrer 0-2-0-0, Bob Manno 2-9-63-0.

Rushing — Columbiana County, Eric Bailey 4-1, Daniel Talbott 11-(-41), TEAM 1-(-2), Terry Rankin 1-0, Tristan Reynolds 1-(-5). Bears, Matt Robinson 7-68, Steve Cupec 6-71, Justin Sanderson 3-15, Harry Burke 1-2, Antawane Davis 2-1, Jerod Hutchison 1-24, Bob Manno 2-4, Eugene Clark 5-87, TEAM 1-(-8).

Receiving — Columbiana County, Zachary Noll 1-14, Eric Bailey 2-20, Russell McCullough 1-14. Bears, Cody Williams 1-17, Randall Palakovich 1-46.