BETHLEHEM \u2014 A few days before Bethlehem Catholic\u2019s District 11 4A football quarterfinal against Pottsville on Thursday, Golden Hawks coach Joe Bernard looked at the weather forecast and worried.<\/p>\n
Since Becahi depends a lot on its passing game, Bernard thought the heavy rain in the forecast might hinder his offense.<\/p>\n
As it turned out, the weather did affect the Golden Hawks, but not in the way you might think.<\/p>\n
A thunderstorm passed through Bethlehem about a half-hour before the scheduled 7 p.m. kickoff. It caused a 15-minute delay for the game\u2019s start and left Bethlehem Area School District Stadium relatively empty.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the downpour during warmups, it felt a little off,\u201d Becahi quarterback Cayden Vassa said. \u201cWe had to sit in the locker room, and wait. And then there was no crowd out here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The atmosphere and an upset-minded Pottsville team that played a lot better than its 3-7 record made things a lot tougher for the Golden Hawks than expected.<\/p>\n
It was 14-14 entering the fourth quarter before Vassa connected with sophomore Armando Thom on a 78-yard touchdown pass to take the lead with nine minutes left. Then, after a defensive stop, Vassa\u2019s third rushing touchdown of the night clinched a 28-14 victory and punched second-seeded Becahi\u2019s ticket into the 4A semifinals, where it will meet longtime rival Allentown Central Catholic.<\/p>\n
In Allentown, the third-seeded Vikings rolled to a 52-21 win over Jim Thorpe behind a spectacular 474-yard, 5-touchdown passing effort by junior quarterback Patrick Cahill.<\/p>\n
The season\u2019s second Holy War \u2013 the name many use to describe the Becahi-Central rivalry \u2013 will be played Thursday night at BASD Stadium.<\/p>\n
Vassa, who has missed several games in the second half of the season due to injury, ran for TDs covering 68 and 20 yards and another from about a foot out.<\/p>\n
He ran for 162 yards, and he and Axel Burkart combined for 149 yards passing with Vassa getting 124 of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt good; it\u2019s good to be back,\u201d Vassa said after the Golden Hawks improved to 7-4. \u201cI came ready and started off the game pretty hot. But we needed to pick it up in the second half. Everyone in the playoffs is good. They\u2019re playing for their season. We\u2019re just grateful to be able to move on and get to practice again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pottsville made Becahi\u2019s fourth consecutive trip to the district semis a challenge.<\/p>\n
The Tide ran the ball well and used a lot of time doing it by running down the play clock before each snap. Max Clews ran for 71 yards and two touchdowns, and Andrew Allen passed for 136 yards. Shay Strencosky caught five passes for 78 yards.<\/p>\n
With the game tied, Pottsville had a first down at the Becahi 14 as the fourth quarter began but Burkart came up with a sack for a 6-yard loss on third down, moving the Tide back to the 13. A 30-yard field goal attempt missed. Two plays later, Vassa hit sophomore Armando Thom on a down-and-out, and he took it up the field along the sideline for a 78-yard, go-ahead score.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sack was a big momentum-shifter, and it sparked the offense,\u201d said Burkart, who had two completions for 25 yards and two catches for 46. \u201cWe went right down and scored. I just made a play. I think the delay affected us in the beginning but in the second half we came out with a lot more momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a three-and-out, Becahi put the game away with a 41-yard drive capped by Vassa\u2019s short TD run and Thom\u2019s second interception of the night and his\u00a0 37-yard return led to victory formation for Becahi.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt great to put the game away,\u201d Thom said. \u201cI love football and I love defense even more, honestly. Obviously, in the playoffs, everyone comes to play. They don\u2019t want their season to end. We had to step it up in the second half and faced some adversity, but we came out with the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pottsville might have left wondering what might have been had Clews not gone down with an injury in the third quarter that put him on crutches or a punt return for a touchdown that was negated by a block in the back.<\/p>\n
Becahi knows it will have to play better in the next two weeks if it\u2019s going to add to the program\u2019s 14 district titles. First up is Central. The Golden Hawks beat the Vikings 28-24 on Sept. 20 in Allentown.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe won the last game but I feel like we can put a better product out on the field, and it will be nice to have this one at home,\u201d Vassa said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM \u2014 A few days before Bethlehem Catholic\u2019s District 11 4A football quarterfinal against Pottsville on Thursday, Golden…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,726],"class_list":{"0":"post-20945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}