By Wendi Reardon Price
Clarkston News Sports Writer
 SHELBY TWP. — The Wolves will take on Romeo in their MHSAA Division 1 Football Pre-District game this Friday.
Clarkston Varsity Football ended the regular season with a loss to Utica Eisenhower last Friday, 36-19.
“We got off to a slow start again,” said Justin Pintar, head coach. “That’s been our Achilles heel the last few weeks – just not getting off to a quick start like we have been. We keep doing it and digging ourselves into a hole early. Then, we wake up a little bit and start playing better. But, by then we have already dug ourselves too big of a hole. It’s been a big thing that’s hurt us the last few weeks.
The Eagles finished the first half with a 16-0 lead. Then, opened the second quarter with another touchdown.
The Wolves scored on a 1-yard touchdown run by sophomore Griffin Boman with 3:19 left in the second quarter. A throw into the end zone for a 2-point conversion went incomplete.
Eisenhower finished the first half with a 40-yard touchdown pass and a PAT to lead 30-6.
The Wolves scored their next touchdown on a 1-yard run by Boman with 4:23 left in the third quarter. A PAT from Eddie Langton put the Wolves down, 36-13.
They scored 12 seconds into the fourth quarter on a 7-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Brady Collins to senior Brody Kosin. The Eagles stopped Clarkston on their 2-point conversion attempt.
Pintar shared there has been growth over the last few weeks even if there have been three consecutive losses.
“A loss is bad if you can’t learn from your mistakes,” he said. “If you go back and learn from your mistakes that’s the important thing. We keep trying to emphasize that and go back and learn. We’re still not perfect. There are things we still need to learn and get better at. That’s what we are going to keep emphasizing is the finer details that make a good football team a great football team.”
He also shared when they watch the film they can see where mistakes were made.
“Are we doing everything we are capable of from a physical and mental standpoint,” Pintar said. “If we are then it’s hard to change things. When you are making mistakes or you’re not playing as hard as you possibly can, I think those are correctable things. Over the next week that’s going to be the enthuses – playing hard, playing fast, playing smart, get everybody flying around. We have to get back to doing that like we were in the middle of the season. Then, trying clean up some of the mental errors that have hurt us as well. We aren’t playing our best football and we know it. There is more this team can give and there is more this team can do.”
The Wolves (4-5) host Romeo (4-5) on Friday, 7 p.m.
“You are going to get your best effort,” Pintar said going into the game. “But you are going to get the other team’s best effort. We also know going into these playoffs we haven’t played our best football the last few weeks, but we have also played the toughest schedule as anybody in the state. We really are battle tested. Some of those games have gone our way. We played really well against West Bloomfield and beat a very good team there. There have been some other games where we haven’t played as well but we have certainly competed against some the best teams in the state – that’s something that helps.”