It turns out the move from 2A to 3A wasn't really that much different for Bethlehem Catholic's wrestling team this year.

The Golden Hawks kept that theme going Saturday evening at Freedom High School, stomping their way through the competition en route to a 48-13 victory over Easton in the District 11 3A team championship.

With wins over Nazareth, Parkland and Easton over the weekend, Becahi outscored three of the top programs in the Lehigh Valley by a 154-28 margin, losing eight matches out of 42 throughout the duration of the tournament.

That is a step up from the competition a year ago, when Becahi only gave up six points in three matches during their run to the 2A team title.

It marks the fifth straight District 11 team title for the Hawks, with the previous four coming in the 2A classification.

For all the talk of what Becahi could do at the 3A level, Saturday's performance was hardly a surprise, but more of an affirmation.

"For four years, on the other side of the mat here, everybody would ask how would we do in 3A," said head coach Jeff Karam. "Well, now they know how we'll do in 3A. The cool thing about it is that we're so darn young. I really thought we were a year away when we decided to go up. We did it because we wanted to be challenged, but these guys are just so receptive to what we want to do. It would not surprise me one bit if we go out to Hershey and win four matches in a row."

Senior 220-pounder Andrew Dunn is one of two seniors in this year's lineup and has never been apart of a dual meet loss with his team.

Dunn recognized that there would be a transition moving to 3A, but also knew that he wanted to keep Becahi's 60-match winning streak intact.

"We knew there was going to be an adjustment, but the goal has always been the same," said Dunn. "Everyday we've been getting better and it's good for us to be wrestling like this heading into Hershey. People wanted to see us up here and it's good for us to come out and perform this way. With me and Brandon [Gallagher] being the only two seniors here, I'm just really proud of all the guys for how hard they've worked."

Saturday's result may be the tip of the iceberg for what Karam wants for his team in the future, beginning with this weekend's PIAA team tournament in Hershey, which gets underway Thursday when Becahi meets District 2 champion Scranton in the first round.

The Hawks will try and make PIAA history this weekend in their hunt towards becoming the first school to win team titles in 3A and 2A with last year's team champion, Franklin Regional, likely to be a semifinal opponent for the Hawks.

"That's one of the reasons were in 3A now," Karam said. "We want to wrestle the best schools. If we could expand our schedule and wrestle teams like Blair Academy, Wyoming Seminary and Phillipsburg and all the tough schools we can wrestle, it only makes you better. We prepare for this time of the year and we take a lot of pride on how we get better."

Freedom's dream regular season took a turn for the worse in team duals, as the Pates goal of reaching their first state tournament came short, following a 32-25 defeat to Parkland in the second round of team consolations Saturday afternoon. The Pates came into the tournament at 24-0 as the second-seed, but lost their opening bout duals in stunning fashion, falling victim to Easton in the quarterfinals 36-30.

After winning their first five bouts of that match by pins, Easton stormed back with nine straight wins to dump the Patriots into the consolation bracket.

The Pates defeated Pottsville 51-18 in their first consolation bout, but then tangled with eventual "true second place" finisher Parkland to get eliminated from the tournament.