Bethlehem Catholic will be looking for a bounce back week when they host Central Catholic on Friday night in their annual Holy War showdown.

The Hawks are coming off a 38-35 loss to Freedom last Saturday, dousing their hopes of winning the City title.

Now the focus for Becahi (7-2) is getting back on track after a surprising defeat.

“We have to respond this week,” said coach Joe Henrich. “I’m proud of the way we fought against Freedom. We were resilient, but I was disappointed in our performance. Coming off the Whitehall game I thought we were clicking and unfortunately we couldn’t duplicate that.”

The Hawks fell behind 21-7 at halftime to Freedom (5-4), but got back into the game with big plays in the third quarter, starting off with a 65-yard TD pass from Javon Clements to Shamus Williams. Clements then hit Daizhun Rhodes on a 41-yard pass to set up Matt Bisko’s second TD run of the night, this one from three-yards out to even the game at 21 apiece.

The Hawks took a 28-24 lead late in the period following an 80-yard kickoff return by Rhodes to give them momentum.

The seesaw affair continued in the fourth quarter when Pates’ QB Jared Jenkins continued a spectacular night, scoring from four-yards out to put Freedom ahead 31-28 midway through the fourth.

Becahi regained the lead with a 22-yard TD run by Zahir Seabrooks with 4:16 left, only to see the Pates answer with an 85-yard drive, capped off by a 27-yard TD pass from Jenkins to Kyree Marshburn for the eventual game-winning touchdown.

Jenkins finished the night 14-of-26 for 335 yards and four touchdowns (three passing) and an interception.

Clements had a modest 9-of-17 outing for 149 yards and a touchdown with a pick.

With Central on the agenda this week, Henrich knows his team has to get back to the basics.

“Central is a solid team, but not the type of team they’ve been the past couple years,” he said. “We just have to be prepared for 48 minutes of football. I really think we got to do a better job focusing on us. It’s about how we execute and how we come mentally prepared more than anything and that’s on me to have these guys ready.”