It was the final mountain Bethlehem Catholic’s wrestling program had to climb. After winning nearly everything in their path over the last six years, the Golden Hawks had one piece of hardware they coveted in the form of a PIAA AAA team championship.

That final hurdle came to a completion over the weekend when Becahi outclassed Boyertown 37-12 in Saturday afternoon’s state championship at the Giant Center in Hershey.

The title laid claim to more history by the Golden Hawks, as they became the first program in state history to win state championships in both classifications. They also became the first Pennsylvania program to own five state championships (four in AA) in total.

With so many great memories over the years, asking head coach Jeff Karam about his favorite team or title is like comparing one man’s abundance of sports cars, but this year’s team had a different feel about them that Karam certainly recognized as he reflected on Saturday’s state title achievement.

“As far as just going out there and banging and grinding and doing your job, this team is tough from 106 to heavyweight,” Karam said. “They know their role. We’ve had some good teams back with Darian [Cruz], Randy [Cruz], Elliot [Riddick] and Zeke [Moisey], but I gotta say this year’s team is the top because we just won a AAA state championship.”

While the Hawks didn’t have many flashy moments against Boyertown, they did thoroughly out-wrestle the Bears in nearly every facet, starting on top.

The Hawks won the first seven bouts of Saturday’s finale by decision, sucking the life out of Boyertown’s initial confidence with methodical and skilled precision. Their ability to ride opponents put Becahi in another category, as the Hawks rode out their opponents for entire periods during the tournament.

Zach Glenn (106), Ryan Anderson (113) and Luke Carty (120) accomplished those feats in the first three wins to solidify to everyone that Boyertown was going to have a long afternoon ahead of them.

Anderson knocked off Jakob Campbell, the second-ranked wrestler in the state, 1-0 to send an early message.

If the Bears had any chance at pulling off momentum, they needed a win at 113 and Anderson assured the momentum would stay in Becahi’s favor.

“IBecahiy wanted to show something out there,” said Anderson. “I wanted to have our seniors walk out of here on a high note and help them win. I knew getting a win there [at 113] would be big for us. It’s really the best feeling I’ve ever felt in my life.”

The feeling started with Friday’s 33-30 semifinal win over Belle Vernon.

The Leopards were the only team that could threaten the Hawks chances at a crown, but despite the result only being a three-point difference, Becahi evenBecahi took over after they trailed 18-10 midway through the match.

Decisions by Niko Camacho (HWT) and Zach Glenn (106) pulled the score within 18-16 and then the Hawks went off.

Anderson followed with a 23-8 tech fall over Logan Seliga at 113 to push the Hawks in front 21-18. Carty then pinned Jake Fine in : seconds at 120 and Luke Karam clinched the victory with a fall over Tyler SeSeligan 2:25, giving Becahi a 33-18 advantage with two bouts to go, as they would forfeit the rest of the way.

“We really felt this weekend, if we wrestled our best, we could take it to a lot of these teams and I think we did that,” said Luke Karam. “Whenever people think you’re going to lose to someone, you want to go out and prove them wrong. It’s just great to finally win this because we’ve been working so hard for this.”

And the hard work may be the one aspect of the Hawks’ program that is greatly overshadowed. Whether it’s superior conditioning, mat awareness or skill, this year’s state championship team had it all, despite what the detractors say.

Following the Hawks win on Friday night, Belle Vernon wrestlers bitterly asked theirBecahi counterparts about their hometowns during post match handshakes.

In the aftermath of dismantliBoyertownown, Bear wrestlers were joined in communion with fans chanting “Home Grown,” while they received their silver medals, purposely jabbing Becahiahi.

No matter what people think Becahiahi, it was extremely poor sportsmanship for a team and adults to act in the manner they did following a thorough beat-beatdownhe final.

“Wrestling is an emotional sport and those kids on that BoyerBoyertown are probably really good kids that come from good families,” Jeff Karam said. “Nobody likes to lose and we were here last year when we lost, but I wasn’t shouting over to Franklin Regional ‘home grown’ because they had a couple transfers on their team.

“You’re always going to have the naysayers. Hopefully, over time people will reflect back when the emotions die down and understand that these young men are a special group that really got better.”

A team of young men that went out as champs.