The Miners began what they hope is a long journey in the MHSAA 11-player football playoffs with a smothering 48-0 victory over Houghton at Miners Field on Friday night.

“We knew they had a big, physical team,” Gremlins head coach Micah Stipech said, “and I was hoping we could use our best trait, our speed, to keep up with them.”

But while Negaunee has superior size and probably strength, they also have their own speed merchants through the legs of a number of players, most notably on this night Nico Lukkarinen, Kai Lacar and Philip Nelson.

Lukkarinen led all rushers with 140 yards in 11 rushing attempts, while Lacar was right next to him, gaining 135 yards in 12 carries.

Negaunee's Chase Bonovetz, left, deflects the attempted tackle of Houghton's Trevor Erva as he crosses the goal line for a Miners' touchdown in the fourth quarter of an MHSAA Division 6 high school football playoff game played at Miners Field in Negaunee on Friday. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

“Our line just made some big holes for us,” Lacar said as he stood next to Lukkarinen post-game.

“Those holes were really big,” Lukkarinen agreed.

Nelson, meanwhile, has been the Miners’ leading receiver all season, often the only receiver to make a pass catch.

This game, he didn’t — and neither did any of his teammates — but NHS didn’t really need it after rolling up 323 yards on the ground.

Instead, Nelson showed his prowess on special teams, where he fielded a punt on a first big bounce and ran it back 62 yards in the game’s first five minutes.

The Miners showed off their big-play ability right from the start, considering that when Nelson scored with 7:07 to go in the first quarter, it made it 14-0 — which included a pair of Nelson extra-point kicks — as Negaunee had run one offensive play.

That play came 1:21 in when Lukkarinen took a pitch from quarterback Ty Jacobson on the dead run around the right end and scurried up the sideline for a 36-yard TD.

One of Negaunee’s best-kept secrets is its lockdown defense. In this game, the now 10-0 Miners allowed just 56 total yards, including a minus-9 yards on the ground.

The only area Houghton, which finished its season at 6-4, made any headway was through the air as QB Camden Markham completed 8 of 17 passes for 65 yards. He had one completion each half of more than 10 yards as the Gremlins managed just four first downs.

“I like the fact that we won,” Negaunee head coach Paul Jacobson said when asked about whether he liked his team’s offense, defense or special teams better. “It’s a great day when you can get a playoff win.

“I’m proud of our guys, the way they approach each week, the way they prepare themselves.

“I look at it as we’re one of 16 teams still left in the (Division 6) playoffs.”

That means it will take three more wins to get to Ford Field in Detroit on Thanksgiving weekend, and a fourth victory to get a coveted state championship like the one Jacobson won in his early had coaching days in 2002.

Friday’s game almost featured a running clock for the entire second half as NHS assumed a 28-0 halftime lead. The fifth TD and 35-point lead that triggers the running clock came up short twice inside the Houghton 25-yard line in the final three minutes of the first half.

Other than that, there weren’t any blemishes on the Miners’ day.

After Lacar scored a pair of first-half TDs, he already had exceeded 100 yards in the first half. Without a running clock to start the third quarter, it gave time for Lukkarinen to match and exceed that by just a bit.

Lukkarinen was handed the ball the on Negaunee’s first two plays of the second half, and by the end of the second play, he scored a touchdown while reaching exactly 100 yards himself.

But the Miners still didn’t reach 35 as the extra point was missed, making it 34-0.

But the next time Negaunee had the ball less than five minutes later, Lukkarinen ripped off a run through the right side of Houghton’s line and in for a 40-yard TD.

After that, it was running clock and the result a foregone conclusion.

This week, Negaunee remains at home at 7 p.m. Friday to face Menominee (6-4), which survived a 44-39 home shootout against Calumet in its D-6 first-round playoff game.

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