When it comes to championship pedigree, you’ll be hard pressed finding another basketball program in Pennsylvania that carries the prestige and success of Philadelphia’s Neumann-Goretti.

The Philadelphia Catholic League champs were the next stop on Bethlehem Catholic’s quest in the PIAA 4A tournament Tuesday night.

That quarterfinal matchup was past Press deadlines, but Hawks’ head coach Scott McClary knew his team would need their best effort of the season to knock off the eight-time state champions.

“Goretti is very good and they are very quick and aggressive,” said McClary. “They play in the highly competitive Philly Catholic league and we need to take care of the ball as they prey on creating turnovers and getting out in transition.”

Becahi (21-6) reached the state quarterfinal matchup with a 49-29 victory over Lewisburg, while Goretti (20-4) topped Scranton Prep 57-51.

The Hawks got a solid effort from their key players in the win over Lewisburg, as Alex Cercado scored 13 points, while Edixon Gomez added 11 points, but it’s been the Hawks defense as of late that has spearheaded their five-game win streak.

Becahi has held opponents to 41 points a game over their last five and held Lewisburg to single digits in the final three quarters.

“Defensively, we have had a good bit of recent success by switching defenses and getting teams to react to what we are taking away and what we are giving up,” said McClary. “Being able to be mentally locked in so that we can constantly change, will be a major key to our success.”

Goretti kept Scranton Prep at bay most of the night in their contest, building three double digit leads in the process of keeping the Cavalier at bay.

Robert Wright III, led the Saints with 22 points in the win over Prep, and will be a handful for the Hawks backcourt.

McClary, simply put, just needs his team to believe and execute that they can top a program that has went 48-3 in PIAA tournament play.

“We will need to be able to rebound the ball against a team that is better than us athletically,” he said. “Our guys have been working hard and have stayed in a mindset of getting better every day. We are on a great run and have a great deal of confidence in what we do. We understand that this will represent the biggest challenge yet, but we are excited to take it on.”