Becahi Defeats Previously UnBeaten PM West

Pocono Mountain West has been the team to beat this basketball season. They defeated Parkland (77-68), Northampton (68-57), Central Catholic (88-78), Allen (74-69 2OT) and Liberty (68-62) on their way to a perfect, 10-0 season.

They are now 10-1.

The team that beat them?

The Becahi Golden Hawks, who only had three wins all season last year.  They now stand at 7-3.

Allentown Central Catholic had a big win, too, knocking off Nazareth (58-50). That's sweet revenge against the team that beat the Vikings for the 'ship during this summer's A-town Throwdown. Central now stands at 8-4, though its league record is just 4-3.

Of course, the big surprise tonight, at least to me, was the thrashing Parkland gave to Emmaus' excellent squad (75-52).I thought the score would be much closer

Bangor (10-0) and Salisbury (9-0) are, I believe, the only remaining undefeated team in the Lehigh Valley. They play each other Thursday night.

The latest top ten high school rankings, from LVBR, are (1) PM West; (2) Parkland; (3) Emmaus; (4) Whitehall; (5) Nazareth; (6) Salisbury; (7) Central Catholic; (8) Allen: (9)  Freedom; and (10) Bethlehem Catholic. .

Nazareth Eliminates Becahi in Stellar Tourney

Nazareth eliminated both the JV and varsity squads for Becahi in this weekend's Stellar Tournament at Cedar Park Beach. The tournament attracted high school teams from all over the area. Thousands of fans crammed onto the grass around the parking lot in a never-ending series of games on the asphalt courts. Parkland and a Cedar Crest team were the final two in contention as I write this post. Losing teams can look for revenge during next weekend's "A-town Throwdown", which is part of Lehigh Valley Sportsfest.

My grandson played in four games (three JV and one varsity) yesterday, so he should be asleep until next Tuesday.

Playing Baseball For a Reason

My grandson is livin' the dream this Summer, playing basketball nearly every night at Cedar Beach, at least until football season beckons. I actually left my black bag there one night this week, filled with notes about different stories. When I returned for it hours later, it was still there. These are good kids.

But there's also good kids who volunteer to work with differently abled athletes at the Miracle league. And this weekend, a group Becahi baseball players participated in an All Star Tornament in Limeport, to raise money for cancer research.

Above you can see Joseph Giordano, Patrick Mengel and John Neupauer, along with coach Mike Grasso.