Negaunee’s Matthew Skewis, center, is tackled by Houghton’s Kaiden Zapolnik, left, and Ty Halonen during their West PAC football game on Friday night at the Miners’ field. (Journal photo by Trinity Carey)

NEGAUNEE — It’s been three years, but the Negaunee football team is back in the playoffs.

And the Miners clinched that postseason bid in convincing fashion, too, rolling past Houghton 35-0 Friday night.

Negaunee started the year 0-2, but is now on a six-game winning streak heading into the last game of the regular season.

“I’m just happy where we’re at right now,” Miners head coach Paul Jacobson. “We’ve told these guys from Day 1 that you’ve got to remember that when we were 0-2, there wasn’t a lot of guys coming around and interviewing us and talking to us.

“And it felt bad. We circled the wagons up a little bit and really, we became closer with each other. That’s what you have to do because we walked a lot of alleys together. We worked hard and we clawed and fought our way back into being 6-2. We’re happy where we’re at right now.

“Playoffs sound pretty good. This is the longest streak where we haven’t been in it, so it feels good to be back. I’m looking forward to being one of 32 teams fighting for a state championship.”

Six-win teams aren’t guaranteed, but have never been denied a playoff berth in the two decades since the MHSAA doubled the number of playoff teams to where it is at now. Enough 4-4 and 5-4 teams will be added to the field to bring the total in 11-player football to 256.

Negaunee scored on its opening drive as quarterback Jason Waterman scrambled down the Miners sideline for a 23-yard run and with Erik Salminen’s extra point, led 7-0. Waterman also kept the drive alive a few seconds earlier by picking up a first down on a short fourth-down conversion.

After the Miners threw an interception on their next possession, then failed to convert on fourth down late in the first quarter, they intercepted a Gremlins pass and ran their way to deep into Houghton territory. With 8:48 left in the first half, Waterman got his second TD run, this one of 3 yards. With the extra point, Negaunee led 14-0.

“Jason has been solid,” Jacobson said. “He’s had to pick up the pace with losing Eric (Etelamaki) at tailback and Drew (DuShane). Two solid leaders for us that have been with us for a couple years now. I think Jason kind of put us on his shoulders early on and continued to carry us as a leader.”

Negaunee’s next big play was blocking a Houghton punt. Finn Helppi picked up the loose ball and ran it back 30 yards for a score to make it 20-0.

“That really helped us pick up some momentum,” Jacobson said. “We kind of stalled a little bit offensively and Leo (Helppi), we were glad to have him back tonight, he comes through with a tremendous play for us. And his brother picks it up for a scoop and score. It was that leadership, that little burst that we needed from some seniors and some great kids.”

The Miners blew the game open shortly before halftime. A deep pass from Waterman to Salminen brought the ball down to the Gremlins 20, and with 14 seconds left Waterman found Alex Munson with a 9-yard TD pass. The twosome connected for the 2-point conversion and Negaunee led 28-0.

After forcing Houghton to go three-and-out, Negaunee got its last score early in the third quarter when Waterman and Munson hooked up again on a 10-yard TD pass to bring the running clock into play.

The Gremlins made a last-gasp attempt to get on the board in the final minute, but back-to-back passes were knocked away by the Miners secondary, one of them in the end zone. Ty Halonen led Houghton offensively with 77 rushing yards.

“We just made a lot of mistakes again,” Gremlins head coach Kurt Huffmaster said. “We’ve got six seniors, so we’re a young team and we’ve just got to learn how to not make mistakes to beat ourselves against good teams.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.