A 21-point loss in the EPC wrestling championship Saturday night is not what Bethlehem Catholic faithful are used to.

Nazareth’s 40-19 thumping over the Golden Hawks was the first league title for the Blue Eagles, as they head into this weekend’s District 11 3A tournament as the top seed.

Who will finish as the district champion will be the million dollar question heading into Freedom Saturday night.

Becahi head coach Jeff Karam knew going into the EPC’s championship Saturday that the Hawks and Blue Eagles could be holding their hands close to the vest with districts a week away.

It turns out the Blue Eagles didn’t need to do that with the match starting at 160-pounds, Nazareth won the first seven bouts, racing to a 31-0 lead and that was pretty much was all she wrote on the night.

“Wrestling is a sport of a lot of emotion and getting in a groove,” said Karam. “I knew starting at 160 was going to be tough for us and things kind of just snowballed.”

Nazareth’s Joe Capobianco scored a major win in Nazareth’s run, registering a 10-9 win over Justus Bozzi at 195 to give Nazareth a major shot of momentum.

“I knew we were going to be underdogs at 160, 170 and 182,” Karam said. “We were hoping things could turn at 195 and they didn’t. Can’t blame Justus for it. We know he’ll get another shot this weekend if it gets to that point.”

Before a presumed rematch with Nazareth is on the table for this Saturday’s district championship, Becahi will need to work through Freedom and possibly Northampton in the semifinals.

Becahi already defeated Freedom 62-6 this season, but haven’t faced Northampton yet.

“We got to get through those two teams first before we can think of anyone else,” said Karam. “The kids had a great practice on Monday and got together on Sunday as a team. Sometimes you need a little wake-up call, especially since Nazareth is really tough team. I hope we can see them again this weekend, but we have a long way to go.”

Liberty rallied past Emmaus in the seventh place match of the EPC championship day by winning the final three matches of the bout to pull out a 37-36 victory. They’ll have a good shot at advancing to Saturday’s district semifinals, as they take on East Stroudsburg South first on Thursday. They then would take on Pottsville in the quarters, who could be the lone higher seed on the night to fall.

Freedom fell in the fifth place match to Stroudsburg 45-28. The Patriots managed to pull out only five wins in the bout, but now have their sights set on districts where they’ll open against Whitehall, in what will be their first meeting of the season.

Unfortunately, that will land them with a meeting against Bethlehem Catholic in the quarters as mentioned above.