Central Catholic's football team finds winning formula with Brendan Nosovitch, Kevin Gulyas and Colin McDermott

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

Central Catholic got the 500-pound gorilla off its back Saturday night.

Kevin Gulyas even said so on the floor of J. Birney Crum Stadium after the Vikings' had-to-have 52-14 Lehigh Valley Conference rout of Bethlehem Catholic before a crowd of 4,000.

Central Catholic, the defending PIAA Class AAA champion, was the heavy favorite to win the LVC title again this season but got off to a puzzling 0-2 start. Most of the Vikings' problems were on the defensive side of the football where they gave up a combined 96 points in losses to Downingtown East and Freedom.

All that seemed like ancient history Saturday. Coach Harold Fairclough's club started slowly by falling behind 14-10 at the end of the first quarter but All-State quarterback Brendan Nosovitch, who's headed to the University of South Carolina, Gulyas and running back Colin McDermott were too hot for the Golden Hawks to handle.

Gulyas even got some individual accomplishments out of the way. He finished with 162 yards on 11 catches and two touchdowns.

He now has 147 catches for his career, topping the District 11 record previously held by former Central Catholic receiver Jeff McGeehin of 144 from 1971-73.

"I really had no idea what the numbers were," Gulyas said. "It just finally feels good to get a win. All records are the result of teamwork anyway."

Bethlehem Catholic (2-1 overall, 1-1 LVC) seemed to have a solid game plan and first-year coach Joe Henrich had immediate success with it. The plan was to attack the Vikings at the edges and downfield.

McDermott (134 yards on 21 carries, 2 TDs) scored on a 5-yard run to give the Vikings a 7-0 lead on their first series. But Becahi quarterback Connor Casey countered by hitting Evan Blair in the flat and Blair took it to the end zone to complete a 65-yard play on the next Hawks' series.

Robert Akrie later broke into the clear on an 86-yard touchdown run to give Bethlehem Catholic an 14-10 lead.

But Nosovitch, Gulyas and McDermott were too much for the Becahi defense to handle as the Vikings built up a 31-14 lead by halftime.

"Our biggest fears were Nosovitch and Gulyas and they, quite honestly, tore us up," Henrich said. "I still believe we could do some good things against their defense but they knocked us off track."

Central scored the last 42 points of the game with the mercy rule taking effect with 8:39 to go.

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