Becahi Beats Lehighton, Will Go To District 11 Final

The Bethlehem Catholic Golden Hawks scored touchdowns at the end of the first half and at the start of the second to put away the Lehighton Indians and run away with a 34-6 District 11 AAA semifinal win on Saturday night.

The Hawks will next travel to Center Valley on Friday night to meet the Southern Lehigh Spartans for the District 11 AAA championship. Bethlehem Catholic has not won a District 11 football title since 2001.

The Colonial League champion Spartans defeated the Pottsville Crimson Tide, 27-3, at home on Saturday.

The home Hawks overwhelmed the Indians in almost every facet of the game on Saturday. Only Bethlehem Catholic’s trouble with penalties in the first quarter prevented the game from getting out of hand sooner.

“We cleaned it up and we finished it off,” Bethlehem Catholic Coach Joe Henrich told Blue Ridge Cable TV’s sideline reporter after the final gun.

It took the Hawks only three plays and 57 seconds to score the first touchdown of the game. The second play of the drive was a 55-yard run by quarterback Julian Spigner, which put the ball at the Lehighton 1. On the next play, Michael McDaniel ran in for his first of four touchdowns.

The Indians had a chance to climb back into the game as quarterback Tyler Cann—primarily with his own legs—engineered an eight-play, 80-yard drive. Even with a missed extra point, the score cut the Becahi lead to 14-6 with 1:38 left in the half.

But the Hawks struck quickly again: Spigner found wide receiver Chris Figler for a brilliant, diving 33-yard completion; the offensive line opened a highway for Marco Plasco to burst 19 yards through the middle; then McDaniel rushed in from the Lehighton 2.

In 53 seconds, the Hawks had scored again and led 21-6 at the half.

Still, Lehighton would get the ball to start the second half, and a productive drive could have put them back in the game. But that was not to be.

Pinned back deep in his own territory for a third-and-very-long, Cann tried to find a receiver in the flat. Instead, the ball was tipped and intercepted by Hawks’ safety Kyle Smichowski.

Two plays later, Antwon Keenan ran it in from the Indians’ 12 to make the score 27-6, Hawks. A little more than two minutes into the second half, the game was effectively over.

“It means a lot,” Henrich told the TV reporter when asked about returning to the District 11 finals. “We’re very happy and ecstatic to be here.”