Ogemaw Heights goalkeeper Sean McClintic was a busy man during Saturday's district championship game on Saturday, making 20 saves.
The Falcons' Cordell Ponak heads the ball out of trouble against Petoskey on Saturday.
Dennis Mansfield
Ogemaw's Ivan Calderone battles for position with a Petoskey player during Saturday's district title contest.

GRAYLING - Oct. 18, 2008 - This year, there would be no monumental upset.

Petoskey, whose season came to an unexpected end in 2007 to the Ogemaw Heights boys soccer team, showed no signs of taking the Falcons lightly this time around and won Saturday's district championship matchup 6-1.

"They just had too much talent and too much speed in too many places," said Falcon coach Jeff Young. "Throw that additional motivation in there from last year it's not too hard to figure things out.

"They came in with more than a little anger in their system, and our inexperience showed up at times. It was an uphill battle, but I'm proud of the way the kids handled themselves through quite a bit of adversity."

The Falcons gave their fans a glimmer of hope just after the midpoint of the first half when Rob Kish scored off a direct kick to tie the score at 1-1.

Petoskey, which outshot the Falcons 32-3 (including a 26-2 edge in shots on goal), never let up, scoring twice before halftime for a 3-1 lead that was never seriously endangered.

Ogemaw kept it within 4-1 until the Northmen tacked on two goals in the final eight minutes of play.

"It was an uphill battle, to say the least," Young said. "It was a good experience for the kids. I think they'll want to go back (to the district title game) and will be willing to do the work to get there."

The Northmen had a huge edge in experience, returning most of their team from last season that was a heavy favorite to win the district title, but fell 2-1 at Ogemaw Heights in the semifinal upset.

Ogemaw (12-10-1) graduated 12 seniors from that squad, including eight starters, while Petoskey returned its lineup mostly intact. Most of the Northmen also play extensive club seasons against top-level competition and have legitimate hopes to contend for this year's state title.

"If you'd have told me at the beginning of the season that we'd get back to the district championship team, I'd have laughed," Young said. "But the kids gradually got their game together as the season went on.

"We'll take a hit next year with the seniors we lose (Derek Hughey, Sean McClintic, Ben Wiltse), but we have a lot more kids coming back that another year of experience should make a big difference."

McClintic finished with 20 saves before leaving the game in the second half after a collision, and Ben Elliott had five saves.

"Obviously Petoskey is obviously a very good team," Young said. "They're not ranked No. 3 for nothing. There's no doubt the better team won, but I'm not at all disappointed with how the kids played."