Bethlehem Catholic football builds big lead, holds on for 20-19 win over Easton to stay unbeaten

Bethlehem Catholic football coach Tyler Ward said he believes an ugly win is always better an a pretty loss.

The first-year Golden Hawks coach got that “ugly win” thanks to a stop on an Easton 2-point conversion try with 3:53 left and another defensive stand that turned back the Red Rovers at the Becahi 46 with 1:23 reamining.

Those defensive plays allowed Becahi to hold off Easton for a 20-19 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference victory on a rainy Saturday night at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium.

“This was the first game where our whole team felt a lot of adversity and sometimes that’s good,” Ward said. “To grow, sometimes you need to fail. You look at us tonight and there were a lot of good things and there was also a lot of really bad things. And that is great for us because now we get to go back and correct a lot of things and try to keep getting better.”

The Golden Hawks became just the second EPC team to reach the midway point of the regular season unbeaten. They are also one of only five 5-0 teams in all of District 11.

For awhile, it appeared as though Becahi would cruise to its seventh straight win in its series with Easton.

But after winning its first four games by an average of 27.5 points, the Golden Hawks were pushed to the final minutes as Easton rallied from a 20-0 deficit with three touchdowns in a five-minute span in the fourth quarter.

Red Rovers’ quarterback Cole Ordway hit a wide-open Collin Torres for an 88-yard score, but the PAT kick was blocked with 8:51 to go.

Ordway then had a 40-yard run to set up his 7-yard TD toss to JC Wilson III to make it 20-13 with 6:48 left.

Bethlehem Catholic, which is 3-0 in the EPC South, got two first downs on its next possession but had its punt blocked by Cooper Troxell and took over at the Golden Hawks 4. On the next play, Dorian Thomas ran around the right end and into the end zone to get Easton within one.

Red Rovers first-year coach Matt Senneca opted to go for two, but Becahi smothered Easton’s Jasir Frutchey on a screen to the left side and the Hawks maintained the lead.

“I told our kids after the game that it was an awful call on my part; that one was one me,” Senneca said. “I thought we had momentum at the end. I wanted to give our kids a chance to win the game right there because I knew our defense was going to hold them. I wasn’t worried about that. But it was a stupid call on my part not to give our kids a legit chance at a tie game and finish it off at the end. That falls on me. I have to live with that one.”

Becahi also came up with key stops earlier in the game.

An interception by Frutchey on Becahi’s third play from scrimmage gave the Rovers the ball at the Becahi 41 and they moved to the Golden Hawks 15 before turning it over on downs. They were also stopped on fourth-and-2 at the Becahi 39 and on fourth down at the Hawks’ 25 in the first half.

Becahi had its own offensive struggles in the first half, but got a one-handed catch from Carter Vassa on a 47-yard touchdown pass from his brother Cayden, a sophomore, with six seconds left in the first half.

“That was huge because we needed something to go well,” Ward said. “We were trying to focus on the run with Jacob [Sutton] and Mekhi [Lapierre] and they were shutting it down and we needed something big to happen. The defense really won this game for us. They kept us around.”

The Vassa brothers connected on another touchdown pass, this one covering 23 yards, with 7:16 left in the third quarter.

“My brother knows where to put it every time,” Carter Vassa said. “I practice those one-handed catches a little bit in practice.”

Cayden Vassa hit Sutton for a 21-yard touchdown with 19 seconds left in the third period and it looked like Becahi would cruise to the finish.

Easton, which fell to 2-3 overall and 0-3 in the EPC South, had other ideas with a valiant comeback that didn’t surprise Senneca.

“Those are Easton kids, man, and that’s what I signed up for when I took the job,” he said. “I knew we were going to get some hard-nosed kids that really don’t know how to quit. They proved that to me a couple of times this season already, fighting back in games. I thought they did a heck of a job tonight, staying with it down 20-0 going into the fourth quarter. Being able to come back and give us a chance to win the game at the end is a credit to the kids.”

Ward also gave his credit to his kids for finding a new way to win.

“It’s never just one, it’s all of us, and today the game ball goes to the defense,” he said. “They hung around. They kept fighting. We gave up a big catch in the end zone and we came back and we get it done on the 2-point conversion.”

Ward said he figured that Easton would try to get the ball either to Frutchey or Wilson on the 2-point bid.

“Those two are freaky athletes and really do a good job,” he said. “We keyed on to that and tried to play a little bit of press man-to-man coverage and throw off of their timing a little bit and tried to get pressure on their quarterback. We made a great play and a great tackle.”

Easton tried a similar play on fourth-and-6 from the Becahi 49 on its final possession and got just three yards. Sammy Ayache was among those involved on the stop.

“We had so many guys on defense make plays for us,” Ward said. “Easton played a great game and this is going to hurt for them just as it would have hurt for us if they got the 2-point conversion. That’s a game where the loser is going to feel horrible because neither of us felt like we should have lost that game. We’re fortunate to come on top.”

Becahi is 5-0 to start a season for the first time since 2017 when it began 6-0 and eventually made the PIAA 4A seminals. The Golden Hawks travel to Emmaus (2-3, 0-3 South) on Friday night, while the Rovers play Liberty at Cottingham Stadium.

Scoring summary

Easton 0 – 0 – 0 – 19 —19

Becahi 0 – 6 – 14 – 0 — 20

SECOND QUARTER

B: Carter Vassa 47 pass from Cayden Vassa (kick failed), 0:06

THIRD QUARTER

B: Carter Vassa 23 pass from Cayden Vassa (Jeremy Fyrer kick), 7:16

B: Jacob Sutton 21 pass from Cayden Vasssa (Fyrer kick), 0:19

FOURTH QUARTER

E: Collin Torres 88 pass from Cole Ordway (kick failed), 8:51

E: JC Wilson III 7 pass from Ordway (Noah Borluca kick), 6:48

E: Dorian Thompson 4 run (pass failed), 3:54