Bethlehem Catholic soaring with different roles
Bethlehem Catholic is rolling like Central Catholic did years ago (and for a long time) when the Vikettes won 28 straight district games and 11 straight district titles from 2000 to 2010, and four straight state titles from 2001 to 2004.
Well, almost. Those Central Catholic numbers and 1,024-career-wins with Mike Kopp will be hard to top.
But look at what the Golden Hawks have done this season with an almost completely different team with totally different roles. They are where they have been for the last decade: 10 straight district final appearances; eight district titles; three state final appearances; and PIAA titles in 2007 and 2019.
Starters Kourtney Wilson, Keyara Walters, Kendra Rigo and freshmen Cici Hernandez and Akasha Santos plus the first players off the bench in Cydney Stanton, Steph Donato and Yarian Fernandez all had a piece of the game’s fast start and their firstround PIAA win on Wednesday.
Not one player is a senior.
The Hawks have won four straight conference titles and seven in the last eight seasons (a conference tournament was not held this season). Coach Jose Medina has a 166-30 record in seven seasons.
With players like Hernandez lighting up the scoreboardand Stanton and company happy to play roles off the bench is a tribute to what Medina has continued since Bill Lanscek began the program’s turnaround in 2012.
It wasn’t that long ago that Bethlehem Catholic was low on numbers
— which is hard to believe now. They had trouble fielding a JV team. Medina’s biggest job this season was keeping a young team’s confidence level as high as he could despite playing and losing to some of the best teams in the Lehigh Valley in the EPC Northampton Division.
And to say that the Golden Hawks are the gold star of area programs recently, with a team in a town called Nazareth right around the corner, is some pretty heady stuff. It starts with the entire program, from elementary school on up. Both the Blue Eagles and Little Hawks have been ahead of the pack, although Easton’s program is getting rave reviews as well.
Medina has a strong feeder system and coaches camps all summer. When you’re a winner, everybody wants to get involved. And yes, the distractors say look at the transfers, Well, there’s no transfers this season. Imagine if Cassidy Saylor (ineligible), an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference all-star, or 6-foot-2 Emily Sekerak (injured) were playing? They’d be a very strong state contender once again.
And they may still be. An awfully tough test comes up Saturday when they travel to Springfield to play at undefeated Cardinal O’Hara (14-0).
Blue Eagle state train gets started
Nazareth opens PIAA play with a quarterfinal matchup with District 12 champ Archbishop Carroll (4-5) at home on Friday. Carroll defeated Constitution 46-21 in their district final on Tuesday.
The Blue Eagles finally broke through by winning two PIAA games for the first time ever last season to set up a quarterfinal game. But like Bethlehem Catholic, they had their season shortened due to the pandemic.
Because of the state only taking the district champions this season, the Blue Eagles (15-1) have a bye into the quarterfinal game — one of the final eight 6A teams in the state. Nazareth has never won a quarterfinal game. Previously, teams had to win two games to get to this far.
And now they get to host a game on home court. This pandemic business might not be so bad after all (yes, it is) even after last season’s disappointing ending. Maybe it’s karma. The seven seniors on the team, three of them four-year varsity players — Talya Brugler, Courtney Paulson and Makenna Fortner — couldn’t have asked for a better scenario.
“We’ve seen a lot of tape on Carroll,” said Rich Bickert (280-111 in 15 seasons) who became Nazareth’s all-time winningest coach in school history this season. “They’re very physical and press for 32 minutes. And rebound hard as a group. Hopefully, they’ll have some trouble with our zone since they see man-to-man 95% of the time. If we can handle the press, we win. If not, it could be a long night.”
Notre Dame faces a very stiff road test
The Crusaders have to travel almost two hours for their 7 p.m. quarterfinal round game Friday after beating St. Basil at home in a thrilling ending on Tuesday. Now they have to face a
Trinity (19-1) team from Camp Hill that has been one of the best in the state recently in a Class 3A quarterfinal matchup. The Crusaders are 0-6 all-time in the PIAA quarterfinal round.
Player of the Week Raegan Cooper, Notre Dame:
The 5-foot-7 junior shooting guard whose specialty is the 3-point bomb, came through for the second straight high-pressure game to lead the Crusaders to an intensity-filled 32-29 PIAA first-round game over St. Basil on Tuesday.
With Notre Dame desperately looking for someone to pick up an offense that scored 10 first-half points, Cooper scored 11 points, by herself, in the third quarter on 4-for4 shooting from the field to give the Crusaders a chance to win late. She scored on a long jumper to open the quarter and added back-to-back-to-back 3s — one, after blocking St, Basil star Denae Carter’s shot on the other end.
She has made 32 3-pointers this season and 117 in her career after making 62 last season which was two off the single-season school record.
Top 10
1. Nazareth16-1
2. Central Catholic 16-4
3. Parkland 15-3
4. Notre Dame14-4
5. Bethlehem Catholic 9-7
6. Jim Thorpe 19-6
7. Easton 7-2
8. Northwestern 17-2
9. Palmerton 14-6
10. Pocono Mountain West 12-3