It's fair to say that Michael McDaniel has been Bethlehem Catholic's MVP all football season. And one thing great players do is show up in big games and the Golden Hawks saw McDaniel emerge again, as he continued his torrid pace this season, by rushing for 206 yards and three touchdowns during Becahi's 42-28 victory over Crestwood in the opening round of the PIAA 3A playoffs last Friday night at J. Birney Crum Stadium.

The win sets the stage for a 2 pm PIAA quarterfinal matchup against Somerset (12-1) Saturday afternoon at Chambersburg.

Last week's win was the first state playoff victory for Bethlehem Catholic (12-1) since 2000, when they were in the midst of winning three straight District 11 4A championships, and lost to Central Bucks West in the PIAA 4A semifinals.

After losing to Berwick 29-27 at JBC last year in the PIAA playoffs, head coach Joe Henrich knows it's a good feeling to have his team be one of the final eight teams in the state playing for the 3A state championship.

"It's an awesome feeling and we want to continue this," said Henrich about the Hawks current state. "We're certainly thrilled to still be playing and you want to embrace the moment, but you have to take things one step at a time at this stage of the season."

The Hawks got out to some early steps last week when McDaniel scored two touchdowns in the first 1:19 of the opening quarter, breaking off 61 and 29 yard TD runs early to give the Hawks a 14-0 lead.

That lead jumped to 20-0 when Julian Spigner (8-of-14, 108 yards and two touchdowns) threw a 40-yard TD pass (PAT failed) to Elijah Fineran with 2:40 left in the first quarter.

Tanner Kahlau would get the Comets on the board with a 15-yard TD run early in the second quarter to make it 20-7. A Julian Spigner fumble in Hawks territory would give Crestwood the ball again and Frank Aigledinger punished them for the turnover by punching in a one-yard score with 7:53 remaining in the half to bring it within 20-14.

Spigner would stop the bleeding with a five-yard scoring strike to Freddie Simmons to cap off a 10 play, 73 yard drive just before the half to give the Hawks a 27-14 lead heading into intermission.

However, a two-yard TD by Aigledinger (149 yards, two TD's) and a two-yard score by Jay Popson with 1:53 left in the third quarter put the Comets ahead 28-27 with momentum on their side.

But that's when McDaniel broke a 27-yard score to answer Popson's TD to put Becahi back on top 35-28 following a successful two-point conversion.

McDaniel has now scored 30 touchdowns on the season and has amassed 1,929 yards on 195 carries.

"He's really been fantastic for us this year," said Henrich of McDaniel. "Our offensive line has been able to open up holes for him and once Michael gets in the open field, that's where he becomes really dangerous."

Damien Diaz would ice the game for the Hawks with a 20-yard TD run with 2:33 left in the fourth to send the Hawks to the PIAA quarters.