Bethlehem Catholic’s girls soccer team tallied two goals within the first three minutes of their match against Whitehall in the Golden Hawks’ 5-0 victory on Sept. 8 at Becahi.

“Whitehall has Chris Bleam, and he’s a legendary coach, and they play really, really organized, so it’s always going to be tough to break down,” said Becahi coach Brad Kratzer. “We were fortunate we got a goal early and a second right on the heels of that one, so it kind of dictated the tone of the game. Then we just sat back and defended to preserve the shutout.”

Unlike the Hawks, the Zephyrs had a difficult time attacking in the final third for the first 40 minutes.

Summer Hill ignited Becahi’s offense with the first goal, and Gabriella Mutis scored the second goal for the Hawks.

Then, in the sixth minute, Hill struck again for a 3-0 Bethlehem Catholic lead before Madeleine Nichelson found the back of the net in the 18th minute.

“We’re slowly getting better,” said Coach Kratzer. “We started tough- Nazareth and Parkland. I feel like we started getting close with Parkland. We were in that game. Just an unfortunate couple of mistakes. We started to clean up the mistakes and the results are getting better.”

Whitehall missed an opportunity when Becahi goalie Sophia Arvelo came out of the goal to retrieve a ball but slipped. The Zephyrs charged the net as the ball began to roll in, but Arvelo quickly kicked it out.

Zephyr midfielder Ella Weber took a shot near the end of the first half that went high, and in the second half, Whitehall forward Ava Wells took shot that was on its way, but Mackenzie Davis cleared the goal.

Mutis’s header scored the Hawks’ fifth and final goal in the 44th minute.

“We were going through a lot of subs just to slow the game down a little bit. It’s hot. We have another game tomorrow at 10, and also we wanted to sit back a little bit deeper,” said Kratzer. “We just didn’t want to get countered on, and that’s where their biggest threat is, especially through Ava Wells. We didn’t want to catch a counterattack and concede a silly goal. We absorbed a little bit of pressure and countered when we could.”