Things didn’t go right for Bethlehem Catholic from the start of last week’s District 11 4A championship and they never really got better in their quest to repeat as district champions.

Southern Lehigh forced four turnovers on the night, built a steady lead throughout and were never fully threatened during the course of a 28-7 victory.

Sean Steckert carried the Spartans offense, rushing for 182 yards and three touchdowns and hauling in a receiving score to help Southern Lehigh (11-2) take home their second district championship in school history.

The Spartans took a 21-0 lead into halftime, but Becahi (6-7) certainly helped them along their way by shooting themselves in the foot with three first half turnovers, including a lost fumble on the Southern Lehigh one-yard line in the second quarter. The opportunity to tie the game turned into a momentum shift, as Steckert raced 61-yards for a touchdown five plays later.

It was that type of night for the Hawks, that battled against miscues and penalties all season long and saw too many of them in the biggest game of the season.

“I wouldn’t even just say turnovers. It was so many little mistakes,” said Hawks’ head coach Tyler Ward. “It was one of those things where the ball just never really started to roll our way. We got into the red zone a few times, but we fumble on the inch line and I think when we go back and watch film there’s things we can all do better. That’s the nature of football. It’s the ultimate lesson teacher.”

Justin Martinez scored the Hawks lone touchdown in the third quarter with a 14-yard score, but that was all the points that Becahi could muster. Jeziah Gregory led the Hawks with 91 yards on the ground and Cayden Vassa had 80 rushing yards but was ineffective throwing the ball, going 1-for-10 for 19 yards and three turnovers on the night.

The young Hawks lose five starters to graduation, which bodes well for the future of the program that has played in the last two district championships under Ward.

He just hopes they can use this year’s silver medals as motivation toward getting back to their championship expectations.

“We really only played five seniors,” said Ward. “We return a ton and if we can build on all the positives and take this medal and these guys get a whole offseason with a really good group. We have a good nucleus coming up and hopefully we can take this to the next level.”