The championship rematch is on. And it was a night when history repeated itself.

After their hard-fought, 72-65 win over Notre Dame at Whitehall Tuesday night, Catasauqua’s boys’ basketball team will be going back to the Colonial league championship game Friday night at Freedom.

In a tight battle throughout, the game was tied at 58-58 with just under five minutes left in the fourth. The Rough Rider pushed ahead for good at 66-64 with 1:31 remaining.

With their win, fourth-seed Catty (19-5) will meet third-seed Northwestern (19-5), who stopped Salisbury, 56-51, in the other semifinal. Northwestern beat Catasauqua, 74-57 in last year’s championship tilt, but the Roughies knocked off Notre Dame, 69-66, in the semifinals last season.

Against Notre Dame, senior Frankie Pujols had a team-high 25 points, freshman Alani Nix had 18, and senior Reece Lopez added 14. Justin Manning, the league MVP, had a game-high 28 points for top-seeded Notre Dame (21-3).

Pujols and his teammates knew they had to keep their feet on the pedal all night. He also watched his team show plenty of grit and determination along the way.

“It feels amazing,” gushed Pujols. “The win was great from start to finish although we struggled with rebounding at times. We never gave up and answered every time they came and scored. The effort we had and the energy was amazing because it went all game and we never let up. We knew what it took to take down a number-one seed like Notre Dame.

“It took guts and determination on both ends of the floor, and we pulled through and got the win. It was a very tight game and we knew that was going to be the case because it was a playoff game and they were ranked number-one in the league. We knew we had to play team basketball and be disciplined the whole game in order to beat them, and that’s what we did.”

Lopez knew revenge would be on Notre Dame’s minds.

The game was a close and high intense game,” noted Lopez. “We know they were going to come for us since we did beat them last year, but we know what we had to do and we executed.”

Pujols is anxious for Friday’s showdown to reverse the outcome from last year. Despite last year’s district defeat, the Roughies went on to their first district title since 2006.

“This rematch is a very important topic right now,” stressed Pujols. “It’s a great feeling for us knowing they got us last year and us being able to come back and get revenge feels great.”