Negaunee's Nash Hillier, front left, gets a handoff from quarterback Gerald Johnson, behind him, and looks for room to run as L'Anse's Dysean Allen, right, tries to break free from a block at the line of scrimmage in the second quarter at the Miners' field in Negaunee on Oct. 2. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

NEGAUNEE — The Negaunee football team was at a disadvantage last Friday since it hadn’t been allowed to practice for awhile before traveling to Gladstone for the first round of the MHSAA Division 6 playoffs.

The Braves were also a team that beat the Miners earlier in the season.

However, despite those problems, the Miners came out on top and head coach Paul Jacobson was pleased with how they performed after overcoming obstacles like that.

“Obviously, in any game, there’s ups and downs,” he said. “There was a little bit of rust at times for our team not having the ability to practice for a couple weeks. But overall, I was happy with our performance.

“The big thing was just the resilience of our kids. To be able to have a couple Zoom meetings here and there, watch film online with these kids, and then for them to come out and play like they did shows a lot of character and shows a lot of heart of our kids.”

The Miners face another foe they’re know on Friday night — Westwood. Negaunee was supposed to wrap up the regular season against the Patriots two weeks ago, but that game got canceled so they face each other for the first time this fall in the playoffs.

“We’re familiar with them,” Jacobson said. “We play them every year. Coach (Scott) Syrjala comes from the (Jeff) Olson blood(line) in Ishpeming. I know he coached with Jeff for many years and he’s been able to carry on that tradition in Westwood.

“We’re familiar with them. We played them at least once every year for the last several years.

“So they bring a lot to the table and I think they have some great kids. Garrett Mann is a top-notch kid both on and off the field. He’s co-defensive player of the year in the conference so he’s going to be one that we’ll have to look out for on both sides of the ball.”

When asked if it’s easier to prepare for a team you’re familiar with, Jacobson had mixed thoughts.

“Sometimes, but sometimes as a coach, you have to think outside the box on what they can do or want to do or may try to do, too,” the Negaunee coach said. “Westwood has only played three games this year, so there’s not a lot of film out there on them.

“So you may have to go years back in order to watch film and see what they could possibly try to do to you.”

As far as his own team goes, Jacobson says the Miners are just trying to put everything together after a long time off.

“I think the big thing for us, in not having the ability to practice for two weeks, is we’re still trying to get better as a football team,” he said. “This was our sixth game last week and we still feel that we haven’t played our best game yet. So we’ve got to continue to improve, and the further we do that, we’ll have success.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2590, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.