AUBURN HILLS >> The majority of Cranbrook-Kingswood’s players that took the field Thursday night know all too well how difficult it is to defeat the same side three times in a season.

Last fall, the Cranes lost to Orchard Lake St. Mary’s twice in the regular season, then defeated the Eaglets 3-0 for a district championship.

This year Cranbrook won both games prior to the postseason, and its players were all too aware of how hard it’d be to avoid falling victim to that identical pattern with the two sides matched up at the same stage of the postseason for the second year in a row.

“The people that were here last year, which is most of us, we knew what we were feeling last year was a ton of anger, a ton of grit coming into this game, and last year we ended up winning,” Cranbrook senior Paul Lee said. “We knew they were going to come in with the same intensity, and that we had to play really, really well to come up with the win.”

The Cranes got that elusive third win over St. Mary’s Thursday night at Avondale High School, winning 1-0 for their third consecutive district title.

It marked new territory, though, for first-year head coach Jacob Nunner, who before playing at Michigan was familiar to being between the sticks in the CHSL at Warren De La Salle.

“It’s fantastic,” Nunner said. “An unbelievable feeling. This school has been so welcoming. I’m surrounded by great people, I have a great AD, fantastic coaching staff and players. We’ve been working. Props to these boys, they deserved it. Whether in the gym, on the field, in the film room, they’ve been working hard and it’s just nice to see all the work pay off into something tangible.”

In a match full of opportunities born out of set pieces, it was fitting that the lone ball to cross the line came from one. With 18:07 left in the opening half, Cranbrook won a long free kick that may have taken a deflection off an opposing player after being served in by Lee and couldn’t be kept from going in despite an outstretched effort by St. Mary’s goalkeeper Mason Lanfear.

“We rehearse a lot of different types of set pieces in training, so that one, to see it executed in training and then executed here, it was fantastic to see,” Nunner said. “You want it whipped and driven in, and obviously when you put service into the box, sometimes bad things happen. I think one of their defenders maybe mishit it. We needed it. It was big for our momentum.”

Added Lee, “I just tried to hit it in a dangerous area. I didn’t even see what happened; I thought my teammate scored it.”

St. Mary’s came out direct and in control of possession the first 10 minutes before both teams began to carve out chances as the half wore on. Lanfear had to come far off his line and withstood heavy contact to deny one attack, then the Eaglets produced a nervy moment from a corner kick just several minutes before Cranbrook got its goal.

The Eaglets were perhaps unlucky not to come away level at intermission with their looks in the last two minutes, one of which included Gab Richer’s pass from near the end line that flashed across the goalmouth but didn’t connect with a teammate.

“I thought we had a good game plan, stuck to the game plan,” St. Mary’s head coach Keith Jeffrey said. “Our work rate was good. We knew we had to match their intensity because that’s a team that’s well-coached and plays with intensity. And we created a lot actually. I thought we were unlucky to be down 1-0 at half, but at the end of the day, sometimes that’s the way that goes.“We knew they’re very organized. They’ve got a great center back in Paul. (Senior Milo Kiezun’s) very effective, he’s the nucleus for them. We wanted to make it difficult on them, then try to hit some dangerous balls in … We tried to (makes changes and) give them a different look, made some adjustments, and they made some adjustments. Again, I thought we had chances, corners and free kicks. I thought we could hit a few more diagonal balls in the box, but they found a way to defend and get balls out.”

After a number of big moments in those first 40 minutes, Cranbrook managed to subdue the Eaglets for much of the second half. The most favorable chance came in the final few minutes when again Lanfear was called into action and gave a shot attempt a right-handed punch while elevated, then had to fend off the continued attack when he hit the ground to give the Eaglets a look at tying the match on the other end, but St. Mary’s attack never got in for any sort of grade-A opportunity before time ran out.

St. Mary’s, who defeated Holly and Waterford Kettering both by scores of 2-1 to reach Thursday’s final, finishes the season with a record of 9-11.

“I think our team was very dangerous, very competitive,” Jeffrey said. “You take away the record — a lot of the games we lost in the last, like, five minutes of the game, very unlucky again. But the team competed, showed up every day. I’ve got a lot of returners. We’re still young, goalie’s a freshman, we’ll be returning two captains. The future’s bright, man.”

Cranbrook defeated Avondale and Brother Rice to get to Thursday’s district final. The Cranes (10-5-1) now get a few days off to prepare for fifth-ranked Mason next Wednesday in Goodrich.

“We’re looking forward to it,” Nunner said. “We’ll be up for it.”