The regular season finale for the Northampton football team devolved from a competitive contest to a pre-Halloween horror show as Bethlehem Catholic put the K-Kids into the Mercy Rule early in the fourth quarter on the way to winning 39-17.

The Kids’ defense held the explosive Hawks’ offense to a FG and a three-and-out on Becahi’s first two drives. But the ensuing punt caromed off a Northampton blocker, resulting in BC getting the ball back immediately. They capitalized with a quick 43-yard strike from Axel Burkart to Carter Vassa to go up 10-0.

The K-Kids eventually cut the deficit to 10-3 with a season-long 40-yard field goal by Jackson Sandt, but a 45-yard Burkart-to-Vassa connection extended the lead to two touchdowns and the Golden Hawks never looked back.

Northampton got late fourth quarter touchdown runs by Robert Wambold and Dominique Mosley to bring the final score to within a reasonable margin.

“We just didn’t play inspired tonight. I don’t know. There was no emotion. I can’t tell you why. It’s like in year 2 against Beca when we came out and played flat. I can’t explain it. We’ve got to figure it out,” stated head coach John Toman.

Northampton, like every other team in the EPC, had no answers for the Hawks deep passing game. They completed 4 passes of over 40 yards, with three of those strikes going for Burkart to Vassa touchdowns.

“We knew it was going to be a challenge. They’re just beating everybody, right? Nobody’s covered them. We knew it was going to be a problem. They’re a pretty good dynamic duo quarterback receiver tandem,” explained Toman.

Chase Kessler rolled up 101 yards on just 19 carries giving him 1487 yards for the season. The junior’s career rushing total is just short of the 3,000 yard milestone.

The loss, coupled with Easton’s 37-29 upset of Nazareth, dropped Northampton from fifth to sixth in the final district power rankings. Instead of a playoff game against Freedom, to whom the Kids narrowly lost 17-14, they now face the daunting prospect of a quarterfinal game against Parkland on Friday. The Trojans beat the K-Kids 35-0 in week 5 at Al Erdosy Stadium.

Becahi 39,

Northampton 17

Hawks 10 15 7 7 - 39

K-Kids 3 0 0 14 - 17

Northampton Leaders

RUSHING: Kessler 19-101; Wambold 2-37, TD; Small 7-33; Mosley 1-22, TD; McKinney 4-20; Messer 2-11

PASSING: McKinney 2-3-17; Stopay 5-15-41-1

RECEIVING: Brearman 3-24; Ibarra 1-12; Rusnock 1-10; Brobst 1-7; Silfies 1-5

DEFENSE: Williams 4 tackles, TFL; Rusnock 4 tackles; Betz 3 tackles; Wambold 3 tackles; Brearman 2 tackles, INT; Abrachinsky TFL