Of Bethlehem Catholic wrestling team’s four matches so far in the PIAA Class 3A tournament, the Golden Hawks have won by an average of 33 points.
But now the Golden Hawks face a much different challenge at 1 p.m. Saturday in the state final at the Giant Center in Hershey.
A challenge they know oh so well and fell short against last Saturday in the District 11 title match.
That challenge is the Nazareth Blue Eagles.
“No doubt about what happened last week, we used that as motivation for this week as any team would do. So far, the kids have stepped up, they’ve wrestled well. But Nazareth’s a different team. They’re in a different league than all the teams we wrestled,” Bethlehem Catholic coach Jeff Karam said. “There’s no doubt it will be a great match tomorrow. We’re going to have to bring our ‘A’ game to have a shot against them.”
Despite the challenge, the Golden Hawks will enter the final determined to capture their sixth state title in the last seven seasons.
“We’re a confident group of guys here,” Karam said. “They work hard, so they have confidence in what they’re doing and they go out there and perform.”
All the experience in the state championship round doesn’t hurt Bethlehem Catholic’s confidence either. Karam thinks all that state tournament experience has helped the Golden Hawks roll through the tournament so far.
“One thing that I think is an advantage for us is a lot of guys have been in the state tournament before. They’ve all been here as team, except the freshmen. It’s always good to have that experience to get here,” Karam said.
“It’s a great feeling, especially after losing last week. You want to come back and win when it really matters. There’s no feeling like it, except for maybe an individual state championship,” Bethlehem Catholic senior Jody Crouse said about being a part of his third state final in four years.
The Golden Hawks won seven of the first eight bouts of the semifinal on Friday night against North Allegheny to take control.
Crouse opened the match for Bethlehem Catholic with a pin in 2:24. Niko Camacho, Dillon Murphy, Zach Glenn and Ryan Anderson added pins for the Golden Hawks. Jarred Papcsy had a technical fall for Becahi.
With Bethlehem Catholic leading 6-5 after two bouts, the Golden Hawks put together four pins, a technical fall and a decision to stretch the lead to 33 points.
“Jody’s been steady for us all year. It was nice to get him out there to get the match started for us,” Karam said of Crouse. “Wrestling a lot of times is about momentum. We got a lot of momentum going there between him, even Andrew Balukas, he wrestled a really good kid. He didn’t give up. He went out there, fought. Didn’t give up the fall. Then Niko comes back. 106 was huge too. Dillon Murphy, that was basically a defensive pin, really. Once you get that momentum, you just keep on rolling and we were fortunate tonight.”
The victory set up a third meeting this season against the Blue Eagles, who the Golden Hawks beat in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference title match before falling to in the district final.
Crouse has no doubt that the Golden Hawks will enter the championship match with plenty of emotion.
“I think we’re definitely going to fire on all cylinders. Definitely come after them with all we got,” Crouse said.
Josh Folck may be reached at jfolck@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshFolck. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.
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