It was Round 2 for Bethlehem Catholic with their date in the East Penn Conference championship and the Hawks made sure they didn’t go through the same emotions they endured a year ago when Allen thumped them 84-62 in the league championship.

Instead, a Holy War battle against Central Catholic Friday night at Liberty’s Memorial Gymnasium came down to the buzzer as Central point guard Jay Vaughan’s three-point attempt to push the game to overtime smacked off the rim, preserving a 47-44 victory.

It was the Hawks (22-3) first EPC crown in school history and first league championship since 2003, capping off a night where the boys and girls programs, both took home league titles.

“It feels great to come out with this win,” said Hawks head coach Ray Barbosa. “The last couple games we’ve come out and played hard and I’m just happy with how these guys have come out and competed. They work so hard and they deserve this.”

Ryan Young led all scorers with 16 points and added 14 rebounds on a night where he received MVP honors from the EPC, but his back court mate, Justin Paz proved why he was a first-team EPC selection, contributing 12 points to pace the Becahi guards.

Friday’s contest saw 19 lead changes with the game mostly staying within three points. The Hawks held a 45-41 with 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter, until Central’s Nick Filchner hit one of the Vikings eight three-pointers on the night to cut the lead to one.

Paz then made two clutch free throws to push the game to a three-point cushion.

Barbosa had fouls to give on Central’s final possession and Becahi fouled Vaughan twice to bleed the clock further in the waning seconds. On the final foul attempt, Vaughan actually nailed a three-pointer, but wasn’t in the act of shooting. On the next play he worked around a screen at the top of the key, but found plenty of hands in his face on the game-tying shot.

It worked off the front of the rim, finding it’s way into the hands of Young for the start of a championship celebration.

“We knew we had fouls to give and we didn’t want Central to have a chance to run anything clean in those final 13 seconds,” Barbosa said. “We knew they wanted to get the ball in Vaughan’s hands and we just did our best getting guys in front of him to make the shot difficult.”

Vaughan and Dat Lambert led Central in scoring with 11 points each, as both teams now move on to district play, as Becahi enters the postseason as the overwhelming favorite to win the district crown.

The Hawks are ranked third in the state in 4A and should find very little resistance in the district bracket when they open up play on Friday against eighth-seeded Octorora.