By Jim O'Sullivan

It was all Disney but the ending for the Dorchester Pop Warner Eagles. No swelling soundtracks and animated smiles trudging off the field in Orlando after unleashing some three years' worth of frustration on a hapless Huntington Beach squad. Dorchester, playing Saturday in the consolation game, put a 50-22 hurting on their opponents, reprising the type of whippings they'd been handing out all season - 11- and 12-year-old elves in facemasks and shoulder pads, with a penchant for pounding. The blowout earned Coach Terry Cousins's team third place in the nation.

But it was the game before that the Eagles will remember, long after the Space Mountain rides and photo-ops with Goofy have faded. In the Magic Kingdom, where dreams have been marketed as coming true, the reality for Dorchester was last week's 16-6 semifinal loss against the Red Hawks of Oak Grove, CA; the Eagles' third trip to the semis in as many years, with little variation in the results.

In the December 10 semifinal game, the Red Hawks' size and speed proved too much for the Eagles' own notable fleet-footed gridders, as the Hawks ran back a second-quarter interception for a touchdown to seize the lead at halftime. Their defense wearing down in the second half, the Eagles surrendered another touchdown and points-after to bring the final to 16-6.

Their lone tally came in the first quarter, when quarterback Niall Murphy connected with Anthony Smalls for a quick six.

"The thing that hurt us, when you come down here, you're really playing all-star teams," said head coach Terry Cousins, via cell phone from Florida. Cousins pointed out that the Dorchester team is just that, and contended that Dorchester's rules about personnel pits them disadvantageously against other teams competing for the national crown, who draw on broader population bases.

Initially, Cousins said, he considered redrawing the Eagles' roster policy - which includes no cuts - but rethought things.

"After talking with the team, we don't have to do that," Cousins said. "The only thing we can do is knock on doors and try to get more kids to come out."

Any pleas of personnel shortcomings would have fallen on unsympathetic ears in Huntington Beach, CA. Dorchester's vaunted ground game and stifling defense whirred once again on Saturday, ending the season on a winning, if bittersweet, note.

Cousins said frustration from the semifinal loss, as well as bitterness about their exclusion from some of the week's marquee events, had his players riled up. While Pop Warner treasurer Joseph Kirnon said the trip's expenses, an estimated $39,000, were covered, early shortcomings prevented the team from attending festivities staged by Disney, according to Cousins.

"[The players] were happy to be down there, but they wasn't where the other kids were, they weren't going to the parties or the park, they were just playing football," Cousins said. But $19,000 in postseason private and corporate donations, packaged with a $20,000 season-long fundraising push, helped foot the bill for the trip, preventing coaches from having to sink into personal debt as they had last year, according to Kirnon.

As for Saturday's mop-up of Huntington Beach, netting the Eagles their second third-place finish in three years after a second-place slot last year, "That had the guys feeling a little bit better about themselves," said Kirnon, who has two sons in the program.

Cousins said his players await a fourth chance at Super Bowl glory next year, and commented that he hopes to see more ethnic diversity on the Eagles next year. In recent years, Cousins said, the racial demographics of the team have become heavily black, a sore point with Cousins.

"I would hate to see kids that live in Dorchester that are white who feel like they have to go to South Boston to play football," Cousins said, noting that only two of the 20 players on this year's 11- and 12-year-old team were white. Cousins said he hopes to change perceptions that Dorchester Pop Warner is the province of black kids only, mentioning that he would like to see more members of Dorchester's renowned youth hockey program add football to their athletic agenda.

"I will say we've lost a lot of white families from the program," Cousins said, "and I want them back."