If you asked people around the East Penn Conference about Bethlehem Catholic’s football program over the summer, they didn’t express much optimism.

Good thing the Hawks never listened to them anyway.

After two weeks, the Hawks are 2-0 and took home an impressive 34-21 victory over Whitehall last Saturday.

New head coach Tyler Ward always had confidence in the group he inherited this season and the results are paying off.

“Anytime you can win a game in the EPC South you’re going to be fired up,” said Ward. “I’ve always had a lot of confidence in this group and I thought we had a better senior class than people thought we did. And we have some really good young talent and those guys can always be questions marks, but we’ve shown they’re getting better each week. I still don’t think we’re where we need to be. This league is a battle of who can progress the most as we go.”

Cayden Vassa had a breakout performance against Whitehall throwing a trio of third quarter touchdowns to his brother Carter, as the Hawks ballooned a 14-7 halftime lead to a 34-7 advantage heading to the fourth quarter.

Cayden finished the night 10-of-18 for 181 yards and three scores, as well as an interception. He also ran for an eight-yard score in the first half. Carter caught eight balls for 128 yards and three scores, while Jacob Sutton provided balance on the ground with 135 yards and a touchdown.

With another home contest against Pocono Mountain East (0-2) this Saturday, the Hawks should be on their way to a 3-0 start. The Cardinals have been outscored 93-0 this season, but Ward knows they need to just stay in the present and take care of what’s in front of them.

“The thing I stress to them is that each week is a new week and these are the most important games,” Ward said. “Just want to stay in the now and not worry about what other people are saying about us. Two months ago people were saying we weren’t going to win many games and now things have changed. No matter what, our focus is going 1-0 each week.”

Liberty is also off to a 2-0 start following last week’s 46-13 mercy-rule win over East Stroudsburg North. Gabe Green ran for 82 yards and three touchdowns, while receiver Jake Pukszyn caught six balls for 142 yards and two scores.

The two-quarterback tandem of Tre Parham and Caden Vermuelen threw for a combined 279 yards with Vermuelen tossing both touchdowns.

“In my three years here and probably a little before me, this is the first time we’ve won a game by mercy-rule and we like that feeling,” said head coach Shawn Daignault. “Overall, we walk off the field pretty happy. It’s huge to have this group start 2-0. We talked to them at halftime about how to handle a situation where we’re having success. These first two weeks have been a nice growing experience and these kids are growing in front of our eyes.”

Liberty hosts Parkland (2-0) this Friday night in their biggest test of the season, as the Trojans are the defending district champions and showed little trouble dispatching Freedom last week in a 35-0 victory.

“It’s a big challenge and they look like a well-oiled machine already,” said Daignault, “but we told the guys, we have something to say about the outcome this week too. They’re a great team and they’re well coached and have a ton of great players, so the competition is certainly stepping up.”

Freedom (1-1) saw that first hand last week, as they fell in rare mercy-rule fashion 35-0 to Parkland. The Pates could only muster five first downs and 111 yards of total offense. Head coach Jason Roeder certainly wasn’t happy seeing his team perform below the Pates standard.

“We got beat as a program and it’s been a while since we had one like this,” said Roeder. “No way to sugarcoat this. It’s disappointing and embarrassing, but we told the kids we all got beat. In order to fix it, we all need to be on the same page.”

Freedom travels to take on an equally talented Nazareth (2-0) squad this week, fresh off a 42-7 win last week over Emmaus. The Blue Eagles have mercy-ruled both of their opponents this season and present a potent offense led by quarterback Peyton Falzone.

“I trust the character of our leaders and we’ll get this fixed,” said Roeder. “I know things are not going to get better without a lot of effort from a lot of people.”