ROYAL OAK >> The Bloomfield Hills Marian Mustangs claimed their sixth CHSL Bishop Division Championship in the last decade with a 3-0 win over the Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood Cranes Saturday morning.

The Mustangs nearly opened the scoring barely a minute into the game, only to have the goal called back for offsides. Led by the efforts of Sophia Baldwin, Kendall Pankoff and Carola Gorlier, Cranbrook fought their way into the game. The two best chances for the Cranes came back-to-back near the midway point of the period. But the Cranes could not get either one on frame despite some glorious looks, and Marian finally got on the board moments later when Bella Musachio got a clean look at the other end and buried it into the back of the net for a 1-0 Mustangs lead.

The wind was blowing hard all game, and in the second half, Marian got the wind at their back and took full advantage.

“We’ve faced that wind probably two or three times this season already, and the wind is not a factor if you are a team that likes to play the ball on the floor (the ground) as we do,” Marian head coach Danny Price said. “We like to move the ball on the floor, so really it didn’t bother us. We just had to get through the first half without conceding, and with the wind at our back in the second half I always felt confident that we could flourish, and we did that in the second half.”

Indeed, after a first half that saw the Cranes dangerous offensively at times, Cranbrook struggled to create any sustained offensive threat in the second half. Marian took advantage to dominate possession even more than they had in the first half, and the Mustangs made sure to convert a pair of chances to put the game out of reach. Nia Bordogna scored both second half goals for the Mustangs — a 35-yard strike followed barely three minutes later by a 20-yard blast from just outside the penalty area that went in off the right post. That made it 3-0 and gave the Mustangs all the margin they would need.

The win was also a little bit of payback for the Mustangs who were knocked out of last year’s playoffs by Cranbrook in the semifinals.

“It feels amazing. We worked so hard up to this point just practicing and putting in the work, lots of running, lots of discipline. So it feels really good that it paid off, especially against a team that we have a small rivalry between,” junior co-captain Clair Dauer said.

“I’m really happy. I’m happy for my staff. I wouldn’t be able to do this without them,” Price said. “I’m happy for the players. They were absolutely tremendous today. But we talked about that last year, getting beat in the semifinal to Cranbrook and how that motivation and discipline would play in today. So now, we sort of righted that wrong from last year, and now we want to go all the way to states and go back to the Division 2 final.” He added that, “It was a complete team performance.”

For Cranbrook, it is their second straight loss in the Bishop Division Final in their first two years in the division.

“In these games, you always have a chance. You always will have one just kind of bouncing around and hope to finish it. But hats off to Mairan, they’ve got some great players over there, good coaches, and they make us better,” Cranes head coach David Brown said. “But it just didn’t go our way. We didn’t get the bounces we wanted, didn’t get the finishes we wanted, but just to play in this game and represent the Catholic League was good,” he added.

Both teams will now turn their attention to the playoffs. Marian (14-2-1) earned a first round by and will have to wait to see who they play in the district semifinals. It could be Cranbrook (3-8-2) who will play Walled Lake Western this Wednesday with the winner advancing to play Marian the following week.

“Nothing is easy this time of year. Everything is hard, so we’ve just got to play our best and hope for the best,” Brown said.