The holiday season treated Bethlehem Catholic well, as the Hawks are fresh off a tournament title in York last week.

Becahi defeated Danville and York Catholic for the tournament championship to push their season mark to 6-3 overall and extend their current win streak to four games.

First-year head coach Ray Barbosa has already doubled the Hawks win total from last season and confidence is on the Hawks side, but Barbosa also knows that his team still has plenty of work to do in the second half of the season if they want to clinch a district berth.

“We’ve been playing well and winning the tournament at York was big for us too,” said Barbosa, “but we’re still looking for that big win this season. I think we’ve beaten mid-level teams, but we’re looking for that signature win to really boost our confidence.”

That opportunity was on the table Tuesday night when the Hawks traveled to Pocono Mountain West (10-0) to take on the undefeated Panthers. The results of that contest were past Press deadlines, but Barbosa knew that his team was running into a difficult matchup on the road.

“I really just want to see them compete,” he said. “Every game is winnable for us. We got to go at them and believe we can do it.”

Belief is growing and part of that was from their two days spent in York, where the Hawks held off York Catholic 77-76 for the championship. Winning always makes people happier, but spending time together as a team, has helped bond Barbosa’s group.

“You know when you stay together as a team for two days in a hotel, you become closer,” said Barbosa. “As long as this group keeps believing in each other, we can do anything.”

The Hawks close out the week on Friday at home against Whitehall (8-2), giving them two games this week to prove themselves against the upper echelon of the East Penn Conference.

“Our first five games of this year are very difficult,” he said, as they will also take on Emmaus, Nazareth and Liberty in the next week, who are a combined 21-9. “We’ll see how we respond in this stretch because it’s really going to define the direction of our season.”