After a tepid first quarter, the Bethlehem Catholic Golden Hawks (3-1, 2-2) pounced on, and all over, the Parkland Trojans (2-2, 1-2) in a 44-7 mercy-rule ambush at BASD Stadium. The victory raised as many questions as it answered.

“What you saw tonight is what we are capable of,” coach Joe Henrich told his team after the contest. “Our ceiling is so high...We hold our destiny in our hands.”

Last Saturday night, Becahi’s ceiling was the heavens. The Golden Hawks played a nearly flawless football game. They outplayed the Trojans on both the offensive and defensive lines of scrimmage. Their ability to stuff the Parkland rushing attack reduced the invaders into a finesse team sputtering all night on two cylinders.

For the game Parkland amassed just seven first downs and 154 yards in offense. They consistently struggled to sustain drives, converting only two of 14 third-down plays. Some of those failures were self-inflicted, with dropped balls and mental mistakes.

Parkland also uncharacteristically committed 94 yards in penalties.

“We made them make the mistakes tonight,” Henrich told his squad.

Even when the Golden Hawks made a mistake, Parkland was unable to capitalize.

Case in point, on three separate occasions, Bethlehem Catholic botched kickoffs with the ball traveling only to around midfield. Yet Parkland’s offense sputtered and stalled with three anemic offensive possessions producing only one first down.

Whereas the Parkland rushing attack was MIA, the Golden Hawk running game was awesome. They torched the Parkland defense for 233 yards. Running backs Tavion Banks and Malik Thomas made good yardage throughout the night, often cutting back against the grain for large, consistent gains. On spectacular touchdown runs, they weaved their way through a myriad of Parkland arm tackles to reach the promised land. Banks gobbled up 116 yards on 17 carries and two touchdowns. Thomas acquired 119 yards on 13 carries and two touchdowns.

While Becahi’s rushers were studs, the offensive line also deserved much credit. Most of the time they fired off the ball and won their individual battles with a combination of skill, footwork and muscle.

All night Golden Hawk quarterback Jared Richardson was in control. The sophomore was 11-for-19 for 186 yards and one touchdown. On the touchdown pass, Richardson stood tall in the pocket, stepped up and threw a nice spiral on a skinny post pattern.

By contrast, Parkland quarterbacks Ty Tremba and Tanner Lewis combined went 8-for-23 for just 82 yards. The speedy Golden Hawk secondary played a solid game, shutting down post, hook and fly patterns more often than not. Bethlehem Catholic also read screen passes quickly and flew to the ball, resulting in plenty of gang tackling.

Isiah Rico led the Trojan running attack with 42 yards on 17 carries. His longest run on the evening was six yards. That’s mostly because Parkland trap plays didn’t work and neither did their straight ahead runs. Credit Bethlehem Catholic’s solid defensive and linebacker play. Most of the night, they refused to stay blocked and dictated to Parkland what they could and could not do.

“We have to keep chopping wood,” Henrich said after the game. “We have to stay focused, but this was one heck of a win.”