It may have been a bumpier road than expected, but Bethlehem Catholic didn’t care at the end of 48 minutes of action Friday night at BASD Stadium.

The Hawks overcame a Liberty surge in the second half to pull out a 28-21 victory over Liberty in a classic Bethlehem city rivalry contest.

The win was a huge momentum boost for the Hawks (2-3), who clawed their way back to a game under. 500 in a game they desperately needed.

Jared Richardson’s 43-yard touchdown pass to Jaiden Ellis-Lahey with 28 seconds left capped a wild fourth quarter that saw Liberty (1-4) come back from a 14-point deficit, only to see the Hawks steal it at the end.

“I think it should let them know that this is how you have to play week in and week out,” said head coach Kyle Haas. “The one thing we’ve been battling all season long is that the kids wanted to the big things, like Friday night, but they didn’t want to do all the little things leading up. You saw it happen against Northampton, Whitehall and Nazareth. The message was if we could take what we did over 28 minutes against Nazareth or just play hard, maybe we’ll improve as a football team. The way they battled tonight showed progress.”

After leading 7-0 at halftime, the Hawks looked like they were going to cement the victory in the second half, building a 21-7 lead with 8:06 left in the fourth quarter following a five-yard TD run by Zyaire Morris.

Liberty, however, battled back on the ensuing drive with a 68-yard TD strike from Tommy Mason to Josh Farrell to draw within a score. The Hurricanes then evened the game at 21 apiece when Karim Brice caught a three-yard TD pass from Mason with 3:31 left in the game.

After blowing a 41-14 lead the previous week against Nazareth, trepidation could have set in for the Hawks, but instead they decided to prevail.

“We’ve been through so much adversity this season that I was hoping that everything we’ve been through this season, our kids we’re going to keep fighting,” Haas said. “We were tied and all we had to do was get into field goal position, but Jared scrambled and found Jaiden Ellis-Lahey, who I think is going to be a big time football player.”

Mason and Richardson had themselves a duel, as the Liberty signal caller was 16-of-30 for 232 yards and two scores. Richardson completed 19-of-27 for 244 yards and two scores, along with an interception.

Ellis-Lahey lived up to his billing, as he hauled in nine balls for 131 yards and two scores.

The loss marked the fourth straight for Liberty after a season-opening win against East Stroudsburg South, as they now head into a clash with Nazareth (3-2) Saturday night at BASD.

Becahi now faces a tough matchup on the road with Emmaus (4-1) Friday night, but for one night, they could celebrate an emotional win over a city rival.

“Basically, what you had was two programs that are trying to establish what they want to do,” said Haas. “My hat’s off to Shawn [Daignault] and the Liberty staff. They’re doing a great job over there and I’m just proud of our kids because they could have folded when this thing got tied late, but they kept fighting and for us, as coaches, that’s a huge step.”