Spartans Fall to Becahi in Battle for District 11 Title

By Daryl Nerl

Michael McDaniel’s 7-yard carry to pay dirt gave Bethlehem Catholic a 27-24 overtime win over Southern Lehigh and the school’s first District 11 football championship in 12 years on Saturday night.

Along with a trophy, the (8-4) Golden Hawks moved into the first round of the PIAA AAA playoffs. They will play undefeated District 2 champion Berwick at J. Birney Crum Stadium in Allentown on Friday night.

The game started ugly for Southern Lehigh. A little more than five minutes in, quarterback Travis Edmond threw his second interception and Hawks’ safety Kyle Smichowski took it back to the Spartans’ 4. On the next play, McDaniel took it into the end zone for a 7-0 Becahi lead.

The next Spartans drive ended just as disastrously. A snap sailed over punter Collin Johnston’s head, giving the Hawks their second straight possession inside the Southern Lehigh 10. Two plays later, Marco Blasco carried it in from the 6.

A six-play, 72 yard drive near the end of the first quarter cut the lead in half and showed that the Spartans were capable of moving the ball on the Hawks’ defense if they could hang on to it.

But two minutes into the second quarter, Edmond threw his third interception. Cornerback Sean Moroney snagged the tipped ball and ran it back 65 yards for a Hawks’ touchdown. They wouldn’t score again until overtime.

Bethlehem Catholic’s offense struggled to move the ball on Southern Lehigh’s quick and scrappy defense through most of the game. Penalties, which held the Hawks back early in the District 11 semi-final with Lehighton, also dogged them on both sides of the ball.

The Spartans (10-2) fought back valiantly in the second half, tying the score with a little less than four minutes left in the game on a 12-play, 91-yard drive that was capped by Edmond’s four-yard touchdown run, his third of the game.

The key play of the drive was a 49-yard catch and run on fourth-and-11 by wide receiver Jacob Del Priore, who had earlier in the game left the field after a helmet-to-helmet hit that got Hawks’ cornerback Donavan West ejected. Del Priore finished with an impressive nine catches for 195 yards.

But the Spartans, who moved the ball well for much of the game, could not move it on the first possession of overtime, settling for a 31-yard field goal by Johnston. That left the door open for McDaniel’s game-winning run.

Editor's Note: A story published by the Morning Call indicated that the Southern Lehigh team went into the game dealing with the unexpected death of the district's junior high head football coach, Joe Glassic, who passed away in his sleep Friday morning.