If there was ever a time for Bethlehem Catholic to get a signature win this season, it came over the weekend.

Becahi held off Notre Dame Green Pond 26-25 in the third installment of the Holy War series between two wrestling juggernauts on Saturday.

The Hawks (8-1) saw their 26-7 lead evaporate in the final four matches of the night, losing four straight from 172 to heavyweight, but Jacob Lance was able to hold off any bonus points in a 4-2 loss to Gino Guerrisi at heavyweight to solidify the win and hand the Crusaders (8-1) their first defeat of the year.

Head coach Mike Cole knew last week’s match was important for the group, not only to knock off Notre Dame, but also for what it will do for the team the rest of the year.

“We went into Notre Dame focusing on three key things in preparation,” said Cole. “Our mindset has been a goal for most of the season and having continued focus on visualizing success in execution. Focusing on handfighting and heavy hands and the strength of team and commitment to teammates will be something they value their entire life.

“For the most part the team clearly displayed their progress on all three of these goals. They were important for Notre Dame and they are critical to our growth. We have a couple other goals I talk about but they were not the theme for this match.”

The win gives the Hawks a boost of momentum heading into this weekend’s District 11 3A team tournament at Freedom on Saturday.

Becahi has won the last three 3A district titles and five of the last six, but they enter this year’s tournament in more of an underdog role.

For starters, they won’t be the top seed, which has been the norm for them recently, as Nazareth (12-1) and Easton (15-1) will be the top two seeds. With the regular season coming to an end on Wednesday night, the district dual matchups and seeds won’t be announced until Thursday, but the Hawks will likely have to go through both of those programs to win their fourth straight championship.

The Hawks only loss this season came against Easton, a 30-26 defeat on January 10, and didn’t see Nazareth this year. Coming in as underdogs is a different pedigree for Becahi wrestling, but one that Cole hopes can still register the same type of results they’re used to achieving.

“It has been a while since Beca has not been the top team,” said Cole of entering districts. “I look forward to watching the team be the hunters instead of the hunted. I strongly believe if we focus on the building blocks of development, our execution will take care of itself. It won’t matter which team we face, we plan on executing. If we do, we will be in Hershey for team states.”