No matter when Allentown Central Catholic and Bethlehem Catholic play in football, it’s entertaining.

Usually, the Vikings and Golden Hawks meet late in the regular season and often play a second time in the District 11 playoffs.

But on Saturday afternoon at J. Birney Crum Stadium, they staged a rare Labor Day weekend meeting and while it seemed to be a bit early for a classic matchup, the two longtime rivals didn’t disappoint.

Becahi took a 21-0 lead only to see ACCHS storm back with 24 straight points to take the lead.

But on the final play of the third quarter quarterback Axel Burkart hit Tyre Lewis for a 64-yard TD pass, and the Golden Hawks then closed it out with a long drive ending with another Burkart TD pass that provided the final points of a 35-24 nonleague victory.

Becahi improved to 2-0 — one of six Eastern Pennsylvania Conference teams with that mark — and ACCHS fell to 1-1.

There’s a chance the teams could meet again in November in the District 11 4A bracket. If they do, get your popcorn ready.

“We’re 2-0 and it beats the alternative,” said Becahi coach Joe Bernard said. “We know we could see them again. It’s a rivalry game and this is the kind of game you expect out of both teams.”

Burkart threw for 223 yards and four touchdowns, and one came on the first possession of the game — a 32-yard strike to Carter Vassa. He later hit Vassa or a 34-yard score and Vassa had a rushing TD to stake the Golden Hawks to the 21-0 lead.

But the biggest throw of the game by Burkart was a 64-yarder to Tyre Lewis on the final play of the third quarter after ACCHS had taken the lead.

Lewis got behind two ACCHS defenders and caught the ball at about the 20. He was hit as he was about to enter the end zone, and fumbled, but quickly fell on it for the go-ahead touchdown.

“We had two false starts — our right end was in the neutral zone — and that really set us back,” Burkart said. “The coach wanted to take a shot and i chose Tyre. He has been a playmaker for us. He kind of gave me a heart attack by fumbling the ball. But he got it right back. That was a big leap of momentum going into the fourth quarter.”

Burkart, a University of New Hampshire commit, said that, as usual, the game with the Vikings was physical.

“We left a lot on the field,” Burkart said. “We had a lot of mistakes, a lot of penalties. That’s something we need to work on going into Week 3. It’s important for us to stay disciplined, especially when it’s hot out like today. I definitely have to be on the guys about that for the following week.”

After the TD pass to Lewis, Becahi’s defense was able to get a three-and-out and forced a punt.

Becahi then went on a 13-play, 55-yard drive that was even longer because of penalties. The drive took up most of the fourth quarter and ended with a 15-yard TD pass from Burkart to Justin Martinez with 2:24 remaining.

Central had one last possession without a first down and Becahi was able to run out the clock.

“We got off to a good start, but even when it was 21-0 we were making too many mistakes,” Bernard said. “They came back on us, but that play and the end of third swung the momentum back. What I am most proud of is that this is the second week in a row that we had to win the game by running the football and run out the clock and we did.”

Bernard said there many execution mistakes made by his team, but credited ACCHS.

“They didn’t back down and kept coming after us,” Bernard said. “But I’m proud of my team. They responded.”

Carter Vassa, a Towson commit, had five catches for 94 yards and the two TD receptions to go with the rushing TD, but all of his catches came in the first half.

The Vikings, who got a 48-yard field goal by Bryson Baker on the final play of the first half as part of their 24-0 run, made some adjustments that were beneficial.

“I told the kids that it was on me,” said ACCHS coach Jake Reichard. “I’ll take the blame because I didn’t have them ready. That’s never going to happen again. What they did do is they fought back and got us the lead after being down 21-0, but I will take the blame.”

Central used two quarterbacks and junior Janiel Pena, who transferred from Emmaus, gave the team a lift in the second half.

“The kids is an athlete with a great arm,” Reichard said. “We’re confident in both of our guys. We felt like the way the game was going, we needed to make a change. He made some mistakes and he’ll be the first one to tell you that. But he operated the offense and we chucked it deep and we ran the rock. We put points pretty quickly. Once he gets a full grasp of the playbook, I think we’ll have even more confidence in him.

Quaid Eisenhard, another junior, also provided a spark with two touchdown runs to go along with a one-yard plunge by Trey Torres-Johnson.

“Quaid is a weight room warrior and some of his runs were patient runs,” Reichard said. “I was happy to see that. We need another running back because Trey is toting the rock a lot. He’s also playing every play on defense, so it was good to see Quaid play like that.”

While Becahi travels to Berks Catholic, which is 0-2 after losses to Notre Dame-Green Pond and Executive, ACCHS visits Nazareth, which is coming off a 49-13 win over Whitehall.

“My message to the kids after this one was that a Week 2 win or loss is not going to define our season,” Reichard said  “We know it doesn’t get any easier next week. Nazareth is a heck of a football team with a heck of a coach and a heck of a quarterback. We have to go up there on a short week. So, it’s my job to have them ready and I am going to go home and get started right away and hopefully we’ll be ready to go on Monday morning.”

 Scoring Summary

Becahi – 7 – 14 – 7 – 7 — 35

ACCHS – 0 – 10 – 14 – 0 — 24

FIRST QUARTER

BC: Carter Vassa 32 pass from Axel Burkart (Evan Schultz kick), 9:17

SECOND QUARTER 

BC: Vassa 6 run (Schultz kick) 8:57

BC: Vassa 34 pass from Burkart (Schultz kick). 7:44

CC: Trey Torres-Johnson 1 run (Bryson Baker kick), 1:37

CC: Baker 48 field goal, 0:00

THIRD QUARTER

CC: Quaid Eisenhard 12 run (Baker kick), 6:14

CC: Eisenhard 20 run (Baker kick), 1:38

BC: Tyre Lewis 64 pass from Burkart (Schultz kick), 0:00

FOURTH QUARTER

BC: Justin Martinez 15 pass from Burkart (Schultz kick), 2:24