Pontiac — For nearly 70 minutes, Warren De La Salle and University of Detroit Jesuit staged a heavyweight battle on the artificial turf at Pontiac Notre Dame for the Catholic High School League A-B soccer championship.

They appeared to be evenly matched in intensity and talent. During the regular season, the Pilots nipped the Cubs 1-0, but U-D avenged that later in the season with a 4-0 shutout.

U-D Jesuit won the rugged Central Division with a 3-2-1 record (and 12-7-2 overall) with De La Salle runner-up at 2-2-2 (and 13-5-3 overall). The Cubs were ranked one of the state’s top 12 teams in the latest Division 1 rankings, while the Pilots were rated among the top 14 early in the season.

In the championship game, neither team’s offense could penetrate their opponent’s defense. And, on occasion, when it did, both goalies — U-D’s Nathan Sier and De La Salle’s Jake Townsley — were up to the challenge. The game remained scoreless.

But that all changed in the next furious 6 minutes and 19 seconds.

At the 10:16 mark, the Cubs’ Peter Czajkowski slipped the ball past Townsley to give U-D a 1-0 lead. It wasn’t the knockout blow, however.

At 6:21, De La Salle’s Brandon Piwinski tied the score at 1-1.

Some 41 seconds later, at 5:58, Aleks Vushaj put De La Salle ahead, 2-1.

With 3:41 left to play, U-D’s Matt Cunningham headed an inbounds pass from Nick Lamping to tie the score again, at 2-2.

The game went into two 10-minute “golden goal” — soccer’s version of sudden death — override periods.

It all came down to a shootout, won by U-D Jesuit, 6-5, to give the Cubs a rare CHSL soccer championship, their second in school history after their first in 2000. It was only the third time the Cubs had reached the CHSL finals since 1985.

Kevin Tuite, coach at U-D Jesuit since 1999, said the game was a “credit to the Catholic League and the high quality of soccer.”

Notre Dame repeats as C-D champ

It was hard to tell from Ryan Elchuk’s post-game comments that his Notre Dame Prep squad had successfully defended their CHSL C-D soccer title.

“They outplayed us,” he said. “There were a lot of small things that we didn’t do well.”

What the Fighting Irish did well came with a little less than eight minutes to play in the first half. Adam Pearl’s throw-in from the right sideline looped over the heads of the Royal Oak Shrine defenders. Ian Cairns headed the ball high into the right corner of the net for what turned out to be the game-winning 1-0 score.

Notre Dame (5-2-3; 11-3-5 overall) was runner-up to Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook in the CHSL AA Division. Cranbrook is one of the three non-Catholic private schools that compete in the CHSL, but are not eligible to play in championship games.

The loss was Shrine’s first this fall in 15 games. The Knights were 12-0 to win the CHSL Tri-Sectional Division, 14-0 overall and among the state’s top 15 teams in Division 4 ranks.

Coach Mark Soma, a 1999 Shrine alum and coach for 14 years, blamed “a breakdown in communication” for Notre Dame’s score, but thought his team played “exceptionally well ... we just didn’t have any clean-cut opportunities.”

Don Horkey is a freelance writer residing in Shelby Township. He may be reached at [email protected].