Scott McClary knew Bethlehem Catholic’s battle against Central Catholic in last Friday’s District 11 4A championship would be emotional. One thing he may not have predicted would be the contest being a blowout.

The Hawks jumped on Central early and never looked back, coasting to a 65-49 victory at Freedom High School.

It was the third straight district title for the Hawks, who improved to 25-3 this year and added another championship to their resume this season after winning the East Penn Conference title as well.

Becahi jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, keeping the Vikings (17-9) scoreless through the first 4:45 of the opening quarter to set the tone for the rest of the night.

“We got up 10-0 and our pressure defense set the tone for how we wanted the game to go,” said McClary. “They [Central] were playing really well coming into the game and we were playing OK. So, we wanted to extend our defense full court early in the game to get us going and I thought that was very key.”

The Hawks led 36-23 at halftime and opening things up to 45-27 in the third quarter, until Central’s Sam Vaughan gave the Vikings a jolt of life with back-to-back three-points to close the gap to 45-33. That was the last time Central would ever truly feel in the game, as Becahi never allowed the game within single digits.

Justin Paz led all scorers with 21 points, while Kyle Young chipped in 13.

Central’s leading scorer, Chad Kratzer, was held in check for most of the night, registering 14 points to lead the team, but in reality things were never close on Friday.

After topping Wilson 55-44 in the semifinals, McClary was not pleased with his team’s performance. He felt the team understood that and came back to practice on Wednesday refocused.

“I thought Tuesday [in the semifinals] was one our worst games of the year and Wednesday was absolutely our best practice of the year,” McClary said. “That tells me everything about the character of these kids. Our ability to stay together and bounce back and have our best practice of the year coming off Tuesday night. We don’t win on Friday here, if we don’t win on Wednesday and I couldn’t be more proud.”

The Hawks now take on Prep Charter (15-7), the fifth seed from District 12, at 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Liberty’s Memorial Gymnasium in the opening round of the PIAA tournament.