Bethlehem Catholic felt they were pushed around by Easton in a week four loss and decided to step up the physicality last week at practice. The combination of both factors certainly helped play a part of the Hawks throttling Central Catholic 27-0 Saturday night.

The Hawks got 144 yards rushing and two scores from Jeziah Gregory on a night where they racked up 252 yards on 38 carries to bully their way past their rival in a Holy War showdown.

The win pushes Becahi to 3-2 on the season and head coach Tyler Ward felt it was one of their most complete games of the year.

“Winning football games is always hard, no matter who the opponent is,” said Ward, “but winning big rivalry games is even harder. I was very proud of our guys, we had a good plan and the kids executed at a high level.”

The Hawks led 7-0 at halftime thanks to an 18-yard rushing score from Gregory in the first quarter, but got some breathing room when Cayden Vassa ran for a 23-yard touchdown in the final minute of the third quarter to give them a shot of momentum heading into the final 12 minutes of action.

Justin Martinez rushed for a three-yard TD midway through the period and Gregory capped the game with a 33-yard rushing score with 29 seconds left in the game to end the rushing bonanza.

Vassa only threw the ball seven times on the night, completing four passes for 67 yards, as the Hawks run game pushed their will on the Vikings (2-3).

“This was the first game that we played consistently well over 48 minutes,” said Ward. “I thought it was a good bounce back from a physicality standpoint as well. Easton kicked our tails upfront and it was a wake up call for us as a team. I thought that made us practice better and be more focused throughout the week. I hope this continues to be a springboard for us moving forward.”

The Hawks hit the road to Pocono Mountain East this week to take on a winless Cardinals team, just before they close out the season with four game stretch against Freedom, Nazareth, Liberty and Northampton.

After starting out last year 5-0 and then losing their next five regular season games before winning the District 11 4A championship, Ward feels his team is in a good spot as they head into the stretch run.

“We treat the season as 10 mini seasons,” he said. “No game is more important than the one right in front of you. I stress to the kids to try to master the present, one practice at a time, one game at a time.

“With a young team you have to know there will be ups and downs throughout the season. We just have to keep improving and keep climbing every week. Build on the things we do well and correct the areas of the game that we are still struggling with. I was very happy with our mentality and the way we went about this game, I look forward to seeing us follow this method the rest of the season.”