Staff photo / Brian Yauger Poland junior Matthew Matiste (13) looks to gain control of the ball Tuesday night while Hubbard’s Brayden Murray (14) runs into the play.

POLAND — A pair of goals by Poland’s Noah Huda propelled the Bulldogs past league rival Hubbard and helped clinch the team’s third-consecutive league title, in a 2-1 win over the Eagles.

“We knew Hubbard was going to come in and play really, really hard,” Poland coach Brian Garcar said. “The first time we played them, it was a great game and we ended up winning 2-1 on a late goal. So we talked all weekend about what we needed to do to get ready for this game and our guys did enough. I don’t necessarily think we played perfectly but we did enough to get the win.”

Huda got the Bulldogs on the scoresheet about halfway through the first half and after a few near chances, did it again early in the second.

As the top guy for Poland this year, Huda has had a target on his back. That being said, after a tough start to the year, he feels like they’re finally putting it all together in time for the postseason.

“We had a rough start of the season,” Huda said. We were 1-2-1, played hard all four games and we were again a little frustrated, but (the leadership group) knew as captains on the team, we knew we ought to take responsibility and everything to control the team, make everyone focused and settle down. Now we’re on an 11-game win streak and we’re looking great.”

This marks the first outright Northeast-8 championship for Poland since 2020. They shared the title with South Range last season.

“It feels really good,” Garcar said. “That was a goal that we had at the beginning of the season. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. There’s a lot of good teams in our conference. You’ve got to come ready to play every single day, especially when you play that second go around against these teams.

“Our guys have played better over the last couple of weeks and we’ve played some of our better games on those second goes with these teams. I’m proud of the guys. I’m proud of how they battled and they’ve earned it, they deserve it.”

Out of Hubbard’s three losses this season, two have come from Poland. Howland was the third. The Eagles (10-3-1) have three games remaining, hosting Lakeview, then traveling to Orange and Niles to close out the year.

In the last three games this regular season, expect Hubbard to hone in on possession as they get ready for the postseason.

“We just need to keep working on when we have possession, keep maintaining possession and not just turning it over and giving them the opportunity to counterattack us,” Hubbard coach Cory Reinard said. “I think that’s our biggest thing. We do very well with possession. It’s just in higher press moments, or like with Poland, they do a great job of sitting back and giving us the ball which causes us to turn over ourselves. In those moments we need to keep possession so that we’re able to maintain that and try to break things down.”

The Bulldogs close out the regular season with two more league contests. They have a chance to finish a perfect 12-0 in league play this season. Poland hosts Niles on Thursday for senior night, then hosts Lakeview in the season finale the following Wednesday.

With the postseason fast approaching, Poland, while happy with the league crown, isn’t finished yet. They’re hoping to get healthy in time and just clean things up.

“We’ve got a couple of guys who are still battling a few injuries here and there, so we want to try to get healthy,” Garcar said. “Try to continue to get our touches, clean up some passes, try to stay in shape and kind of keep that game shape. Obviously, we want to continue to score goals. That’s one of the things we do well, but defensively also stay tight. There’s a lot of things that we’ve got to continue to work on and try to fine tune and get better with. But these are two big two good games for us to try to figure out what we need to do to get better for the tournament.”

Seeding will be done for the postseason this weekend.