UPSSA Football Polls

(first-place votes in parentheses)

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11-player W-L Pts Pvs

1. Kingsford (4) 9-0 24 1

2. Menominee 8-1 19 2

3. Iron Mountain (1) 9-0 16 5

4. Marquette 6-3 10 3

5. Negaunee 6-3 6 4

Others receiving votes: NONE

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8-player W-L Pts Pvs

1. Pickford (5) 9-0 25 2

2. North Central 8-1 20 3

3. Forest Park 8-1 15 1

4. Norway 7-2 9 4

5. Ishpeming 6-2 4 5

Others receiving votes: Munising (6-3) 2

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MARQUETTE — Iron Mountain and Pickford took advantage of some big victories to move up in this week’s Upper Peninsula high school football polls voted on by select members of the U.P. Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.

This is the final poll of the season with the playoffs starting this week, meaning that for one and only one U.P.-ranked team, Marquette, it’s the end of the line.

The Sentinels end with a solid 6-3 record, but didn’t have enough playoff points to qualify for the MHSAA Division 2 playoffs, finishing 37th in the state with 32 teams making the playoff cut.

Marquette joined Negaunee (6-3) as dropping a position in the final UPSSA poll after MSHS lost 27-17 at Kingsford on Friday and the Miners fell 35-21 at Iron Mountain on Thursday.

The Mountaineers not only finished their season a perfect 9-0, but moved up two spots in the final 11-player poll to No. 3. Marquette slipped a spot to No. 4 and Negaunee also one spot to No. 5.

Kingsford (9-0), which wasn’t a unanimous No. 1 choice as IM got one of those votes, remained atop the rankings with Menominee (8-1) staying in second after a 41-0 blitzing of Bark River-Harris.

In eight-player, Pickford picked up a big win while combining that with the first loss suffered by former No. 1 Forest Park to move to the top of the pack.

The Panthers (9-0) drubbed UPSSA poll vote-getter Munising 64-8 on Friday, while the Trojans (8-1) lost to new No. 2 North Central 45-34, also Friday.

That enabled Pickford to become the unanimous No. 1 team after the Panthers had trailed Forest Park by a single vote the past several weeks in the race for the top.

NC is also 8-1 as a consensus No. 2, while FP is still highly enough regarded to be a unanimous pick for No. 3.

Norway (7-2) remained No. 4 after a 38-6 beating of Rudyard on Friday.

Ishpeming (6-2) stayed at No. 5 after shellacking downstate Auburn Hills Oakland Christian 58-6 at home on Saturday.

And Munising (6-3) stayed in the “other receiving votes” category after the loss to Pickford.

Steve Brownlee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 552. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.