Joe Henrich is looking for a bounce back week of football for Bethlehem Catholic after experiencing their first defeat of the season two weeks ago against Stroudsburg and that test will come Friday night when the Golden Hawks travel to J. Birney Crum Stadium when they take on Central Catholic.

Becahi (9-1) defeated Allen 56-12 last week, scoring all their points in the first half during a contest that was from ideal for Henrich and company.

Despite Central's 2-7 record on the season, Henrich knows this week will be a much better test for his team as they look to lock up the top seed in the District 11 3A playoff race.

"It certainly was tough to gauge how we responded after the Stroudsburg game playing Allen," Henrich said. "That's a difficult situation over there [Allen] and it wasn't the type of game that can show what we learned from our loss. This week, it'll be totally different and I told the kids to not underestimate because of their record. Central's played some tough games and just haven't been able to come out on top of some of them. It's a great challenge for us heading into the playoffs."

Six different Hawks scored in last week's lopsided result, as Damian Diaz led Becahi with three rushing scores. Elijah Fineran also hauled in one of (QB) Julian Spigner's two touchdown throws on the day, as well taking back a 29-yard interception return for a score in the first quarter.

Things won't come so easy this week against Central, who took Liberty to the wire during a 35-28 defeat last week.

Quarterback Mason Kholi is one of the toughest players in the East Penn Conference under center and showed his resilience last week, as he threw for 243 yards and three TD's in the loss to the Hurricanes.

"They're able to get some big plays on offense going because of him," Henrich said in reference to Kholi. "They hang in there on defense too, but have had some breakdowns that have cost them, but we're excited for this game, as it's going to be a challenge for us. We need to play a tough, physical game for 48 minutes before we get to the postseason."

In other Becahi football news, wide receiver Freddie Simmons verbally committed to Rutgers last week, which was the school that first sought his services at the beginning of the recruiting process.

Henrich knows a thing or two about seeing Division-I wide receivers move on to college, as he coached former Emmaus and current West Virginia wideout Kevin White for four years before coaching at Becahi.

"Those two players are complete opposites," said Henrich when asked about any similarities between White and Simmons. "Kevin was skinny and small as a sophomore and really became a late bloomer. Now look at him.

"I think it's a great opportunity for Freddie to go play against the best competition. As an athlete, you want to be pushed by the best players out there and he's going to be given that chance."

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