Negaunee’s Gerald Johnson, center, finds room to run with Ishpeming defenders Aidan Rajala, left, and Logan Hurkmans closing in during the first quarter of their high school football game played in Negaunee on Friday. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

Upper Peninsula Sportswriters & Sportscasters Association 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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1. Marquette (5) 4-1 25 1

2. Kingsford 4-1 19 2

3. Sault Ste. Marie 4-1 14 4

4. Westwood 4-1 8 5

5. Negaunee 4-1 5 —

Others receiving votes: Menominee (3-2) 3, Calumet (3-2) 1

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8-PLAYER

1. North Central (5) 5-0 25 1

2. Forest Park 5-0 18 3

3. Pickford 4-1 14 2

4. Ontonagon 4-1 12 5

5. Newberry 4-1 5 —

Others receiving votes: Norway (3-2) 1

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MARQUETTE — There’s a pair of new teams from the area in this week’s high school football polls conducted by the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.

One re-entered after having been in rankings early in the polling season, while the other is making a first-time appearance this season.

The brand-new “kid” is Negaunee, which with a 4-1 record enters the 11-player poll in fifth place.

The Miners defeated Ishpeming 43-0 on Friday after starting the season with a 14-12 loss to Iron Mountain and then putting up convincing wins over Calumet, Hancock and Manistique.

Probably even more impressive is Negaunee’s appearance in the statewide Associated Press rankings, where the Miners are seventh in Division 6.

The other team re-entering is the apt word “newby” with a few letters added in the middle — Newberry.

The Indians are also 4-1 and staked their claim to a spot in the eight-player top five after knocking off previous No. 4 Rudyard 34-28 on Friday.

Newberry is back at No. 5, where it was two weeks ago when the first rankings came out from the UPSSA.

The Indians also have lopsided wins against Brimley, Gogebic and Cedarville while losing to previous top-five team Munising on Sept. 17.

Maintaining their positions in the top five of 11-player football are No. 1 Marquette and No. 4 Westwood.

The Redmen (4-1) are the top dog for the second straight week after dispatching Gladstone 43-12 on Friday.

Earlier in the season, they scored at least 49 points in wins against Alpena, Escanaba and Kingsford, with their loss coming to Traverse City Central (4-1), the No. 7 team in the AP rankings of Division 2.

Westwood moved up a position from fifth to fourth after an easy 54-0 victory over Manistique on Friday.

The Patriots also have big wins over Houghton, Iron Mountain and Ishpeming while suffering their only loss to Calumet on Sept. 10.

Westwood missed the AP Division 7 top 10 by one vote and is 12th in those rankings. It was stated here several weeks ago that the Pats are a Division 6 team, which they were last season, but actually have moved down to Division 7 this season.

Munising (3-2), which was on the “others receiving votes” list last week in eight-player, didn’t garner any votes after falling on Saturday 46-0 to downstate Suttons Bay (5-0), which is ranked fifth in the AP eight-player poll.

With Negaunee and Westwood in the AP rankings, several other teams from the U.P. also made those polls.

Kingsford is 12th in Division 5, missing the top 10 by four votes, while Menominee is 14th in Division 6, outside its top 10 by 10 votes.

And in eight-player, U.P. No. 1 North Central is also No. 1 for the AP, while Pickford is seventh, Forest Park eighth, Ontonagon 15th and Norway 17th.

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