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The Deckerville Eagles saw their season end when Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes used a field goal, a blocked punt and field position to help secure a 36-20 victory in the title game. While Eagles closed out their season with a 7-4 record, the Lakers, ranked No. 4 in Div. 8 by the Detroit Free Press, move to 9-2 and into this weekend's Region 3 title game at Fulton-Middleton (11-0).

The Lakers' John Kroll broke through to block a Jake O'Mara punt early in the second second, setting up Jim Clifford's 30 yard TD run on the very next play. It gave Waterford a 14-8 lead

"That was definitely a big momentum thing," said Eagles coach Bill Brown. "The kicking game was the difference in the game, and our inexperience in a couple of situations."

Deckerville overcame the block midway into the second quarter and tied the game at 14-14 on a 35 yard touchdown run from Tony Santana.

A huge punt by L J. Stolarski, who also is WOLL's kicker and quarterback, put the Eagles back on their own seven late in the half. Lakers forced a punt and took over at the Eagles' 38, leaving great field position. A pass from Stolarski to Adam Goins took the ball to the 25 with just seconds left. Stolarski then booted the 35 yarder, just clearing the crossbar for a 17-14 lead.

"Realistically, those three points before halftime were big," said Brown. "Then they came out and scored and that put the pressure on us."

On the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter, Lakers' Jim Clifford raced 52 yards to set up a first-and-goal at the Eagle nine. After WOLL was flagged for a holding call, Stolarski found wide receiver Kevin Schuman alone in the end zone. Stolarski's extra point kick made it 24-14.

The Eagles, who had moved the ball well on offense in the first half, came back late in the third quarter to pull within four, 24-20. Sophomore quarterback Cody Hoff fired a pass in the right flat to senior Jake O'Mara, who took it in for the score. The two-point conversion run, though, failed.

The Lakers bounced right back to go 57 yards on seven plays and took 30-20 lead on an 11 yard pass play from Stolarski to Dylas Armstrong with 7:57 left in the game.

On the ensuing kick-off, Deckerville could not handle Stolarski's long, driving boot and started on its own four. The Eagles went on to turn the ball over twice deep in their end, stopping Lakers once from scoring, but then setting up the clinching touchdown. After Lakers recovered a fumble at the Deckerville four, Clifford took it in from there on the next play with 3:09 left.

The Eagles actually out-gained the Lakers in total offense, 331 yards to 314, but the kicking game and a few big plays were costly.

"We moved the ball. We assumed coming in that we could," noted Brown. "But, they got the big plays. A lot of those plays came on first downs. They ran probably 15-16 counters... because they probably didn't want the full force of our defense."

WOLL scored on its first possession of the night to take a 7-0 lead. Clifford ran it in from two yards out for the first of his three scores. Stolarski booted the PAT.

The Eagles countered with a 62 yard drive. Santana, a senior fullback, capped it off on a one yard run and junior Marcus Kemp ran in the conversion for an 8-7 lead.

After forcing the Lakers to punt, the Eagles chalked up a pair of first downs before stalling and then absorbing the punt block.

Clifford, who scored three times and rushed for over 160 yards in the win over Peck the week before, finished with 165 yards on the ground for WOLL. Kemp led the Eagles' rushing attack with 119 on 19 carries. Santana added 113 on 19 tries.

Deckerville also had seven passes receptions for 55 yards from O'Mara and three for 32 from Trevor Phipps.

Brown said this was a learning season for a team that 17 underclassmen.

"We had just six seniors, and one was a first-time varsity player, so inexperience was a big factor." He added, "The guys played hard all year and we played a lot of tough games. We took Harbor Beach (now 11-0) to the end and we won some games.

"We had a chance to win two championships (GTC East and District). We didn't do that, but with 17 returning players, and quite of few that played a lot, it was great experience for those guys."