It’s rivalry week across the area’s local football scene and the epicenter of the final week of the regular season always has its crosshairs on Bethlehem.

The weekend of monster matchups begins on Friday night when Bethlehem Catholic (3-2) travels to J. Birney Crum to take on Allentown Central Catholic (3-2) in a Holy War battle between two of the District 11 4A contenders.

Saturday afternoon always brings the best treat of the season when Freedom (3-1) and Liberty (0-4) square off in the ultimate city rivalry at 1 p.m., as the Patriots have a chance to take sole possession of the city championship with a victory.

After stomping their way through a 45-0 win over Becahi last Saturday, head coach Jason Roeder and his team will look to keep their momentum going into the postseason with a win over their fiercest counterpart.

“I thought we played very aggressively, being physical and fundamentally sound,” said Roeder of their performance against Becahi. “This was a city game and we put a lot of emphasis on this. It’s one of our first goals all year to try and win a city championship and that continues going against Liberty.”

Last week’s contest had the emotion zapped out of it quickly for Becahi, as quarterback Jared Richardson injured his left (non-throwing) shoulder on the second series of the game.

That drive was compounded by the ensuing Becahi punt getting blocked by Marcus Kreidler and returning it 40 yards for the opening score.

Freedom quarterback Ethan Neidig then hit Quin Hoke for a nine-yard touchdown just before halftime to build Freedom’s lead to 17-0 and they never were threatened.

Neidig added an 11-yard TD run in third quarter, while Matt Russin and Deante Crawford punched in second half rushing scores from four yards and one yard respectively to push the contest into mercy rule territory.

Becahi amassed 172 yards of total offense on the afternoon and struggled to get things going after Richardson’s injury, which wasn’t something that head coach Joe Henrich was going to use as a crutch.

“This happens to teams all the time,” Henrich said. “Freedom lost their quarterback for a different reason, but they keep on going. We need to be able to rally around each other and do the things we’re coached to do. It just wasn’t our best effort today.”

The Hawks will certainly need a better effort against Central this weekend in a game that will have playoff seeding implications, Central comes in a the third seed and Becahi sits right behind them at the four spot in the 4A power rankings.

Richardson’s status was unknown at the time of publication, but it’s safe to say while the Hawks will need Richardson back against Central, they also need to clean up their own mistakes.

“The first four offensive plays, three of them were wrong,” Henrich said. “The play Jared got hurt on, it was a busted play and we can’t put ourselves in these situations with all the miscues.

“We got to put this game behind us and not feel sorry for ourselves because we have a big one this week against Central.”

Freedom, on the other hand, got the type of response that Roeder was looking for after losing to Nazareth the previous week.

“It’s always easier to go into practice after a win,” said Roeder. “This was this team’s first chance to respond after a loss and I’m really proud of them.”

Liberty fell to Nazareth 28-0 last week, as the Blue Eagles led 21-0 at halftime to control the game.

For Liberty head coach John Truby, Saturday’s contest is always a special one..

“I think all the doubt that surrounded the start of the season, makes this one special,” said Truby. “The Liberty-Freedom game is important for both communities and honestly, I’m glad that we are going to get the chance to play it. We all have gone through a rough patch the past six-seven months, some of us have experienced tragedy. Saturday we get a chance to focus on something else and have some normalcy.”