If you are going to an end a long losing streak against one of your rivals, you might as well do it in style.
That’s exactly what Bethlehem Catholic did Friday night at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium.
After losing 10 straight games to Freedom, the Golden Hawks put a decade’s worth of misery behind them with a flurry of Axel Burkart passes.
The senior quarterback who is headed for New Hampshire put together one of the best nights in Golden Hawks history as he completed 17 of 19 passes for 414 yards and five touchdowns. He also ran for a score as the Golden Hawks delivered one of the biggest statements of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference football season with a 49-17 mercy-rule victory over Freedom.
The emphatic victory put Becahi at 6-1 overall, 3-1 in the league and 1-1 in the Northampton County Division.
It also clinched a District 11 4A tournament berth and kept the Golden Hawks firmly entrenched as the No. 1 ranked team in that classification with three games left to play in the regular season.
Freedom’s Michael Stofanak throws the ball against Bethlehem Catholic on Oct. 9, 2026, BASD Stadium in Bethlehem. (Jonathan Broady/Special to The Morning Call)
Freedom, meanwhile, fell to 4-3, 2-2 league and 0-2 in the division.
“Last night me and mom were talking and we were praying it would be a good night and it was,” Burkart said. “We looked at film and saw so many things we thought we could take advantage of.”
Dan Kendra, who has worked with many of the best quarterbacks in Becahi history over the years, including his son Dan who was one of sport’s biggest stars in the 1990s and played for Bobby Bowden at Florida State, said Burkart is special.
“I’ve been working with him since last year and we’ve been working on fundamentals,” Kendra said of the 6-foot-3, 210-pounder who didn’t get the chance to be the starting quarterback until this season. “Fundamentals win. He gets his feet set and he’s doing a great job of taking a pre-snap look and knowing what to look for. He’s a real good competitor. He’s tremendous in terms of being coachable. I wish he was a quarterback for three years because his best years ahead of him. But this was big. This might be a record.”
It wasn’t, however. Becahi’s passing mark is held by Ryan Roeder, who threw for 479 yards in a game against Allentown Central Catholic in 1997. Roeder, now an assistant coach at Lafayette College after a lengthy stint with the New York Giants, is the brother of Freedom coach Jason Roeder.
The only record Bethlehem Catholic coach Joe Bernard focuses on is going 1-0 each week.
The Golden Hawks had a bad week of practice entering its league opener against Easton on Sept. 19 and lost on the last play, 20-14. Since then, Becahi has won three straight games by a combined total of 149-31.
Freedom’s Lashawn Johnson runs the ball against Bethlehem Catholic on Oct. 9, 2026, BASD Stadium in Bethlehem. (Jonathan Broady/Special to The Morning Call)
As impressive as Becahi was with its passing game, Bernard was more pleased with his defense.
“That’s where it started,” he said. “We tackled well and really shut down their running game. Then we thought we could get some deep balls on them and thought we could connect. We have a lot of weapons, and I was really pleased with how we executed tonight. We’re hard to defend when we’re playing well, which we are.”
Burkart’s 17 completions were spread among five different receivers.
Carter Vassa, who missed two games with an injury, has come back strong and delivered three catches for 120 yards and two TD receptions and another score on the ground.
He was also involved on a well-executed hook-and-ladder type of play when Burkart hit Tyre Lewis for 16 yards and Vassa came around left to right to take a lateral from Lewis for another 33 yards to the Freedom 34. The play came with 39 seconds left in the first half and Becahi already up 28-10. They had the ball at their own 17 and many thought the Golden Hawks would take a knee and run out the clock.
Bethlehem Catholic’s Armando Thom catches a touchdown against Freedom on Oct. 9, 2026, BASD Stadium in Bethlehem. (Jonathan Broady/Special to The Morning Call)
Instead, they stayed aggressive.
“We’ve been practicing that since camp,” Bernard said. “So, it was nothing new. We came out and ran it. Our kids are used to me not taking a knee and not punting.”
On the next play after the Lewis/Vassa combo connection, Burkart hit Vassa for a 34-yard score to make it a 35-10 at halftime and Freedom never threatened after intermission. Lewis finished with eight catches for 164 yards and a touchdown and Armando Thom had four grabs for 96 yards.
“While I am out there, I try to attract defenders and open up opportunities for other people,” Vassa said. “I love that all of our receivers got a touchdown tonight.”
As for the hook-and-ladder play, Vassa said it’s called Franco, in honor of Franco Harris and the “Immaculate Reception,” in the 1972 AFC playoffs against the Oakland Raiders. On that play, Harris was trailing the play and caught a deflected pass and took it the end zone for the game-winning score.
That play happened by accident and is still disputed to this day by members of the ’72 Raiders.
There was no disputing the dominance of Burkart and the Becahi offense on Friday night.
“The loss to Easton really bothered us and we’ve had great practices over the last three weeks,” Vassa said. “We’ve been practicing great and playing great. We’ve still got work to do, though.”
The Patriots, meanwhile, were held to three completions and 11 yards passing and had two passes intercepted, including one by Vassa. The Patriots’ Lashawn Johnson, one of the league’s top backs, was held to 69 yards on 17 carries.
Bethlehem Catholic’s Justin Martinez runs the ball against Freedom on Oct. 9, 2026, BASD Stadium in Bethlehem. (Jonathan Broady/Special to The Morning Call)
“It starts in practice and we thought we were going to go deep on them,” Bernard said. “On Tuesday, we hit 95 percent of our deep balls in practice. Even DK [Kendra] said I’ve never seen this before. We had such a good week in practice and looked good in warmups and it was like ‘here we go.’ But we’ll enjoy this for 24 hours and then we’ll start getting ready for Nazareth.”
The Golden Hawks host the Blue Eagles on Saturday night. Freedom travels to Northampton, which is coming off its first win over Easton since 2008.
Becahi 49, Freedom 17
SCORING SUMMARY
Bethlehem Catholic 14 – 21 – 7 – 7 — 49
Freedom 3 – 7 – 0 – 7 — 17
FIRST QUARTER
B: Carter Vassa 40 pass from Axel Burkart (Evan Schultz kick), 9:07
F: Nathan Stannard 33 field goal, 1:01
B: Armando Thom 66 pass from Burkart (Schultz kick), 0:00
SECOND QUARTER
B: Burkart 1 run (Schultz kick), 6:26
F: Lashawn Johnson 2 run (Stannard kick), 5:24
B: Thom 18 pass from Burkart (Schultz kick), 3:49
B: Carter Vassa 34 pass from Burkart (Schultz kick), 0:22
THIRD QUARTER
B: Vassa 1 run (Schultz kick) 3:42
FOURTH QUARTER
B: Tyre Lewis 35 pass from Burkart (Schultz kick), 10:56
F: Jahaire Hughes 1 run (Stannard kick), 0:30
Individual stats
RUSHING
Bethlehem Catholic (26 for 40): Antonio Salomoni 5-33; Justin Martinez 9-14; Axel Burkart 7-(11), TD; Carter Vassa 2-2, TD; Jovani Hidalgo-Tuff 2-1; Zakai Brake 1-1.
Freedom (40 for 184): Lashawn Johnson 18-70, TD; Jahaire Hughes 9-63; Amory Sangster 5-41; Michael Stofanak 4-18; Braeden Lewis 4-(-8).
PASSING
Bethlehem Catholic: Burkart 17-19-0, 414 yards, 5 TD.
Freedom: Michael Stofanak 3-13-2, 11 yards; Lewis 0-6-0.
RECEIVING
Bethlehem Catholic: Tyre Lewis 8-164, TD; Armando Thom 4-96 2 TD; Carter Vassa 3-120 (33 on lateral), 2 TD; Jaxon Geiger 1-22; Jeremiah Hernandez 1-12.
Freedom: Marquise Chapman 2-1; Christian Engelhardt 1-10.