There are big games every week in the East Penn Conference and that theme continues for two of Bethlehem’s programs, as Bethlehem Catholic and Freedom square off Friday night in marquee matchups.

The Golden Hawks travel to Nazareth to take on the highly touted Blue Eagles, while Freedom hosts Parkland in a battle of blue blood programs at BASD Stadium.

Freedom head coach Jason Roeder was enthused about the improvement in play from week one to week two and understands that level of intensity will need to again rise with a showdown against the Trojans (1-1), as they’re coming off a disappointing loss to Nazareth.

“Parkland is big and physical up front with great skill guys,” he said. “They’re well coached and it’s going to be a tough game. Nazareth is a very good team with a lot of weapons and they had a good game plan against Parkland. Without getting into specifics, I think there’s things we saw on film we can try and capitalize on, but I’m sure Parkland is going to fix things on their end too.”

Ethan Neidig completed 10-of-13 passes last week for 173 yards and a touchdown, while adding 62 yards rushing and a score to build off his week one performance. The Pates will need that steady growth throughout the season to reach their full potential.

Jalen Fletcher added 80 yards on the ground for the Pates, while Owen Johnson hauled in five receptions for 70 yards. Justin Peluso led Freedom in receiving yards on his lone catch, a 72-yard touchdown. It was the first varsity catch of his career.

After losing to Emmaus and Parkland to open last season, Roeder would like to not repeat that trend again.

“I don’t think we’re really going to stress about what happened last year,” said Roeder. “We’re just going to focus on this week and use the momentum coming off the win over Easton.”

For Becahi, coming off a 21-0 victory over Pocono Mountain West over the weekend, the result may have been a dose of humbling reality that you can’t take any game for granted.

“One thing we learned is that we can’t take anyone lightly,” said head coach Kyle Haas. “Pocono Mountain West had a great game plan for us. We didn’t execute consistently and we struggled to find any kind of rhythm.”

The Hawks (2-0) could only put together 227 yards of offense last week, need a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns to put the Panthers away.

With the top-ranked Blue Eagles (2-0) on the schedule this week, slowing down Nazareth’s offense will be a challenge, especially after they knocked off Parkland 28-10 last week. Nazareth quarterback Sonny Sasso will be in contention for MVP honors once the season winds down, as he is the engine behind Nazareth’s team, as he threw for 144 yards and two touchdowns last week and added 70 yards on the ground.

“I watched Sasso on film and he is a polished high school quarterback,” said Haas. “He can make any throw on the field. I don’t know if you can shut him down. He’s going to complete passes. He has a talented group of receivers. We want to make them earn points and not give up big plays.”

Haas just hopes his offense can learn from their performance last week and find more consistency in a battle that will certainly provide a barometer of where the Hawks stand at this early stage of the season.

“The one big positive I took out of the PM West game was the way our kids picked each other up,” he said. “They didn’t point the finger or get down. It was a frustrating game offensively but they kept playing. Our defense was solid. I think this was an attitude adjustment for us and we need it going into the last eight games. Consistency builds confidence and it’s still too early to see how confident we are as a team.”

Freedom (1-1) bounced back from their season-opening loss to Emmaus with a 33-20 victory over Easton last week.”