UPSSA High School Football Polls

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This week’s U.P. Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association poll (with first-place votes, if any, record, total votes and last week’s poll position):

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Large Schools

1. Escanaba (6) 6-1 34 1

2. Calumet (1) 6-1 29 2

3. Marquette 3-4 15 —

4. Negaunee 5-2 13 4

5. Westwood 5-2 7 5

(tie) Menominee 4-3 7 3

Others: None

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Small Schools

1. Iron Mountain (7) 7-0 35 1

2. Ishpeming 5-2 28 3

3. West Iron County 5-2 21 2

4. L’Anse 4-3 14 4

5. Lake Linden-Hubbell 4-3 7 5

Others: None

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Eight Player

1. North Central (7) 7-0 35 1

2. Pickford 6-1 28 2

3. Forest Park 5-2 20 3

4. Engadine 6-1 14 4

5. Cedarville 4-3 8 5

Others: None

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MARQUETTE — Marquette made a big move and Ishpeming a somewhat smaller one in this week’s Upper Peninsula high school football polls released today as voted on by select members of the U.P. Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.

The Redmen (3-4) bounced up from the “others” category into the No. 3 spot in the Large Schools rankings after a 28-21 comeback victory over previous No. 3 Menominee on Friday.

After the Maroons fell into a tie for fifth, that left Negaunee (5-2) and Westwood (5-2) holding their positions in fourth and fifth, respectively, with the Patriots sharing their spot with Menominee. The Miners dropped winless Gogebic 42-16, while the Patriots took out Small Schools No. 4 L’Anse 30-6.

The Hematites (5-2) made a move up a spot from third to second in the Small Schools poll, switching places with West Iron County (5-2) after Ishpeming blanked the Wykons 28-0 on Friday.

Despite the loss to Westwood, L’Anse (4-3) retained its rating.

Those were the only moves in the polls, as Escanaba (5-1) in Large Schools, Iron Mountain (6-0) in Small Schools and North Central (6-0) in Eight Player each hold a firm grip on their No. 1 spots. In fact, that group is nearly unanimous, the only exception the Eskymos getting six of its seven first-place votes.

This week, the second-to-last week of the regular season, Newberry gets an early start with a game at Brimley on Thursday. On Friday, Ishpeming is at Munising, Marquette at Gladstone, Houghton at Negaunee, Iron Mountain at L’Anse, Norway at Manistique, Westwood at Gogebic, Gwinn at West Iron County and Superior Central at Cedarville.

No area schools made the Associated Press’ state rankings, which were also released today, though a number of U.P. schools earned mention — Escanaba sixth in Division 4; Kingsford 10th in Division 5; Calumet 11th in Division 6; Iron Mountain seventh in Division 7; and North Central second, Pickford fourth and Forest Park tied for seventh in 8-Player.

Steve Brownlee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.