You don’t need to tell Joe Henrich about proceeding with caution in the District 11 postseason, despite top-seeded Bethlehem Catholic entering the 4A tournament as the unequivocal favorite when they open up postseason play at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon at BASD Stadium against Blue Mountain.

The Hawks (7-3) have won the last two District 11 4A titles and the eighth-seeded Eagles, coming in at 3-7, don’t likely have a chance for a massive upset this season, but that doesn’t change the Hawks preparation for this week.

Henrich and company will always remember their 14-6 upset loss to Saucon Valley in the 2015 district semifinals. As his team gears up to take on Blue Mountain this weekend, that game can serve as a reminder on respecting every opponent this time of year.

“It’s a challenge but we’ve done that over the years playing different teams from outside the area and our conference in districts,” Henrich said. “We lost to Saucon a few years ago and we continue to remind the guys of that. At the same time, we’ve been here before and this isn’t completely foreign to our kids and it’s important that we stay humble and make sure they know that we won’t achieve our ultimate goal by skipping anything. We just need to focus on day at a time and I know it’s cliche, but it’s real.”

The Hawks have won four of their last five games and enter districts fresh off a 59-14 demolition over rival Central Catholic last week, scoring 52 points in the first half to run away with the win.

The backfield duo of Zaheer Seabrooks and Tavion Banks wrecked havoc again, as Seabrooks ran for a modest 67 yards and two touchdowns, while Banks tallied 123 yards and four rushing scores. Seabrooks has amassed 1,028 yards rushing this season and nine TD’s, while Banks has 928 yards and 21 TD’s. The rushing tandem has helped catapult the Hawks offense to average nearly 47 points a game over the past five weeks.

That will likely be a continuing trend this week against a lowly Blue Mountain, who started the year off 3-0 before dropping their last seven straight.

“I think Tavion specifically has really exploded and run with authority and the combination of both of them has turned out to what we thought it could be,” said Henrich. “I like how they’ve been playing together and we expect them to keep it going this week against Blue Mountain. We know they’re [Blue Mountain] going to do somethings that are going to make it a challenge for us. We expect them to sellout on some things and we have to respect them coming into the game.

“I’d be lying if I told you they’re an upper echelon team that brings a lot of firepower because that’s not the reality, but at the same time we both have to go out and play each other. We just saw it last week with Liberty beating Freedom and nobody gave Liberty a chance. You never know with teenagers and we need to stay focused on the right things and have the proper mentality because anyone can beat you.”