Orchard Lake St. Mary’s had been to the Big Dance four times in the last decade, three times in the last four.

And had nothing to show for it.

Finally, Saturday night at Ford Field, the Eaglets won the MHSAA Division 3 championship with a rousing running attack in a 45-7 whipping of Mt. Pleasant.

“It’s great to win again,” said Coach George Porritt, who in his 23 years at Orchard Lake has won four state titles. The Eaglets’ fifth crown came in 1977 under coach Art Paddy.

Porritt said his first inkling the Eaglets were title-bound came they beat Catholic Central, 14-13, for the CHSL Central Division. The severest challenge to the state finals occurred in the semi-finals against Battle Creek Harper Creek, a 14-10 come-from-behind victory in the last 49 seconds.

“It takes a special effort to get here (to Ford Field),” he said, adding: “I think we played our best game of the year (tonight). We had great blocking, great tackling, great running . . . it’s the best team I’ve coached. I love watching the team have fun.”

A lot of that fun is watching the performance of “a great trio of backs,” who together have accounted for more than 3,000 yards and nearly three dozen touchdowns. They are first cousins to one another: senior Spencer McInnis and juniors Grant Niemiec and Spencer’s brother, Parker.

“They push each other,” said Porritt.

Niemiec got the Eaglets on the board on the game’s fourth play with a 52-yard gallop around right end. Five plays later, after Mt. Pleasant went three-and-out, Spencer broke a couple of tackles and then sprinted 69 yards to the end zone.

Just like that, in less than five minutes, St. Mary’s had a 14-0 lead.

“I  didn’t expect the breakaway runs,” Porritt said, “but that set the tone of the game.”

To its credit, Mt. Pleasant, a little bit in awe playing in its first state championship game and stunned by the rapid-fire sequence of events, responded with an 81-yard, 11-play drive to get one of the TDs back on a 15-yard keeper by QB Ryan Elliott.

But that was all the scoring the Oilers would manage.

St. Mary’s built a 24-7 halftime lead on a 27-yard field goal by junior Paul Graham and another TD run by Spencer, this one for 47 yards.

In the third quarter, Parker traveled 60 yards and linebacker/tight end James Ross, committed to Michigan in the fall, went 32 yards on an end-reverse.

Spencer finished the scoring for the night, and for his prep career, with a five-yard run on the end of a 17-play, 87 yard drive.

The cousins racked up 405 yards of the team’s 478 offense: Spencer 214, Niemiec 96 and Parker 96.

Seniors Dylan Zerki (11 tackles), Ross (10) and David Talley (9, one sack), sophomore Jalen Watts-Jackson (interception) and junior Brad Harris (interception) led the Eaglets defense to contain Mt. Pleasant, which during the year had amassed 5,400 yards total offense, to a mere 267.

With Spencer out of the picture for 2012, the trio has become a duo. “We’ll be in the weight room Monday,” quipped Parker and Niemiec. “We have to get ready for next season.”