WESTLAND, Mich. — The De La Salle Collegiate varsity bowling team got off to a tremendous start at the Catholic League Championships Saturday morning, while pre-tournament favorite Divine Child was horrendous.

But in the end, the Falcons proved why they were unbeaten during the regular season, as they defeated the Pilots in the best-of-three championship final at Oak Lanes in Westland. De La Salle took Game 1, 211-142, but dropped the next two games, 183-175 and 183-144 to finish runner-up.

Led by the near-flawless play of junior Jack Gohlke, who had games of 279 and 267, De La Salle rolled team games of 1,002 and 913 to build a 99 point lead over Catholic Central. But the Pilots struggled in Game 3 and ended up with the third seed behind U-D Jesuit and the Shamrocks. Divine Child was the fourth seed, more than 200 pins behind De La Salle.

Once in tournament play, De La Salle defeated Catholic Central, 181-173, 156-176, and 198-158 to advance to the championship match against Divine Child. Members of the De La Salle varsity team include Gohlke, Salvatore Aiello, Luke Childs, Rafe Dewar, Lorance Morrison, Andrew Rusu, and Alexander Thorn.

Divine Child won the regular-season title, finishing 9-0-1 in league play. De La Salle was second at 7-3, while U-D Jesuit was third (6-4), Catholic Central fourth (5-4-1), De La Salle's JV-A team fifth (2-8), and Orchard Lake St. Mary's sixth (0-10). The Pilots will take part in the MHSAA Division 1 team regional Friday at Woodhaven Lanes in Woodhaven.