Convincing a burly football lineman to walk a mile uphill isn’t the easiest task.
But there are exceptions — like winning the mythical Christmas City championship for the first time since 2013.
“Not really,” said Bethlehem Catholic’s 6-foot, 285-pound senior lineman Jordan Joynes about the idea of strolling a mile after playing 48 minutes of football, “but it’s going to be something I’ll remember the rest of my life.”
Joynes and his teammates — all wearing red and green Christmas hats — followed the Golden Hawks marching band from Bethlehem Area School District Stadium through the streets of north Bethlehem to their campus at Madison and Dewberry after defeating Liberty 42-28 on Saturday afternoon to complete a sweep of their city rivals for the first time in more than a decade.
“It’s a blessing,” said Bethlehem Catholic senior quarterback Axel Burkart who again elevated his performance to the next level in a city game. “It’s a really unique team. I’m happy that we got to be the one to get it done. I believe we deserve it.”
“It feels great. This team deserves it,” confirmed senior Carter Vassa who also played at an All-State standard.
Burkart completed 24 of 32 pass attempts for a career-high 469 yards and four touchdowns. His previous best was 419 yards and five touchdowns in Bethlehem Catholic’s 49-17 rout of Freedom two weeks ago in the first leg of the city series.
That’s 888 yards, 41 completions on 51 attempts and nine touchdown passes in just two games.
“469 (yards)? Holy cow,” Burkart said. “I didn’t feel like I had that much, honestly. The game went by really quickly. I didn’t notice it. I feel like I got the ball to everybody efficiently, and we worked like a unit on offense.”
Burkart spread the wealth to six receivers, but Vassa was his security blanket. The 5-foot-11, 190-pounder caught a career-high 13 passes for 249 yards and three scores. Vassa was coming off an eight-catch, 242-yard receiving effort in last Saturday’s 52-49 last-second loss to Nazareth. Last year, Vassa brought in 12 catches for 259 yards against Nazareth.
“Axel read his reads real good today,” Bethlehem Catholic coach Joe Bernard said. “They gave us some things that the matchups were there, and we took advantage of them. And Carter’s by far the best football player in the Lehigh Valley, hands down. The kid is such a competitor on both sides of the ball. Runs the ball when we need it. He just does everything, and he’s a tremendous leader and teammate.”
Becahi (6-2) and Liberty (2-6) came into the noon-time Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Northampton Division start with opposite records, and the Hurricanes held a two-game win streak in the rivalry. The underdogs were feeling pretty good after playing to a scoreless opening 12 minutes that included the Golden Hawks missing badly on a 21-yard field goal.
“In our division, every week is a battle and when you play a rivalry game, I told the kids they’re going to be up for the game, too,” Bernard said. “When we play Central (Catholic), it’s like that, too. It’s just a bear if you’re not ready to play.”
Bethlehem Catholic fielded too many offensive weapons to stay off the scoreboard for long. A little bit of luck didn’t hurt, either.
A steady diet of hard running by Justin Martinez and short completions — including a fourth-and-5 toss for 10 yards to Vassa — advanced the Golden Hawks to Liberty’s 16. Burkart tried to find a receiver in the seam on the right side. Linebacker Mekkhi McKenzie reached high and deflected the ball only to have it be redirected to wide receiver Armando Thom who caught it in stride for the score three minutes into the second quarter.
Liberty immediately struck back. Senior receiver Zyaire Davis received the kickoff at the 13. He slowly made his way toward the Hurricanes’ sideline. When Davis saw a hole, he hit high-gear in an instant and high-stepped it to the goal line for the 87-yard touchdown. The PAT try never materialized and Liberty trailed 7-6.
Two plays into the next series, Burkart let loose with a pass that was in the air for more than 50 yards, and Tyre Lewis raced under it for an apparent 77-yard touchdown. A holding call negated the score, however.
Not to be deterred, running back Antonio Salomoni took a screen pass for 37 yards. Burkart feathered in a pass for a 30-yard gain that Thom completed with an over-the-shoulder catch. Lewis gained 13 on a slant pass. Two plays later, Vassa lined up in a full-house backfield and scored off right tackle from the 2.
The Hawks forced a three-and-out, and the offense was back on the move with Vassa displaying his deep array of skills on a 27-yard touchdown catch. On two previous out pattern receptions for first downs, Vassa simply toe-tapped the sideline before stepping out of bounds. This time, Vassa caught the ball, stopped his momentum before spinning away from the sideline and sprinted past the surprised defenders for the score.
“If they play off, I go short. If they play up, I go deep,” said Vassa who recently opened up his recruiting after decommitting from Towson University. “Yeah, I set that up. I kept running comebacks because they were playing back. I came back, turned it back up and Axel put it on the money.”
Bernard’s squad nearly scored again before halftime. With 59 seconds left, Becahi moved from its 26 to Liberty’s 3 primarily on a 61-yard Burkart-to-Vassa completion. However, Liberty senior Chase Parr crashed through to sack Burkart on the final play of the half.
When Lewis ran unattended through the middle of Liberty’s secondary for a 47-yard touchdown reception less than three minutes into the third quarter for a 28-6 lead, it appeared the Golden Hawks were on their way to a mercy-rule win.
Liberty had other ideals. Running back Treyce Whitlow took a snap in a wildcat formation and launched a pass to Davis, one of the premier receivers in the region. Davis wrested the jump ball away from a defender and dragged two tacklers to the 8.
Two plays later McKenzie scored from the 1. The Hurricanes got back on scoring schedule with Davis catching the two-point conversion pass from quarterback Alsaiah Gross.
On the ensuing kickoff, Christian Hackett sent a high, short kick near Becahi’s 35 that Whitlow sprinted to and recovered on one bounce at the 33 as a pair of Golden Hawks watched in disbelief. On first down, Gross froze the defense with a play-action fake and found Davis behind the secondary for the touchdown.
Two touchdowns in nine seconds and Hackett’s PAT suddenly sliced the deficit to 28-21.
Wounded but not scarred, Bethlehem Catholic regrouped and methodically pounded out a nine-play, 73-yard drive that culminated in Vassa’s 13-yard touchdown catch on a fade pass from Burkart.
Martinez went over 100 yards with a 12-yard touchdown run with 4:49 remaining to boost the margin to 42-21. He added another gain of 5 to finish with 111 yards on 17 carries.
Liberty completed the scoring when Gross found a leaping Greg Tillman for a 27-yard TD reception on fourth down with 3:23 to play.
“We didn’t play our greatest game, but we didn’t panic,” Bernard said. “We felt pretty confident. When we didn’t run the ball for anything in the first half, we came out and ran the ball in the second half, made some adjustments and we got it done.”
Bernard said it was a benefit his team had Liberty on deck after the emotional loss to Nazareth that eliminated it from contention for the division title.
“The good thing about that loss was the fact that we had to play a rivalry team right away,” Bernard said. “It got our attention right back and focus the way it needed to be. It was a good thing that we were playing Liberty.”
“We learned from last week,” Joynes said. “It was a bad game, but we came back and showed here today. It’s been 15 years or so since we got it (city championship), and it’s good to go back with it. This was a goal at the beginning of the season. It’s the first step and next step is districts and then on from there.”
The Golden Hawks conclude the regular season at Northampton next Friday before moving on to the District 11 Class 4A playoffs.
But for 24 hours, with the first 30-to-40 minutes featuring a victory walk back to campus, Bethlehem Catholic savored its city crown.
“It’s huge,” Bernard said. “When you talk about certain things, this is big for our program, our school, our community, the Beca family. It’s been 15 years, whatever it’s been, so I’m really proud and happy for everybody to enjoy it.”:
Liberty will try again next Saturday afternoon to earn a victory over a city rival when it meets Freedom.