UPSSA Football Polls

(first-place votes in parentheses)

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11-player W-L Pts Pvs

1. Menominee (5) 5-0 25 1

2. Kingsford 5-0 20 2

3. Marquette 4-1 12 3

4. Negaunee 4-1 10 4

5. Iron Mountain 5-0 8 5

Others receiving votes: NONE

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8-player W-L Pts Pvs

1. Forest Park (3) 5-0 23 2

2. Pickford (2) 5-0 22 1

3. Munising 5-0 15 3

4. Norway 4-1 8 4

5. North Central 4-1 7 5

Others receiving votes: NONE

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MARQUETTE — With one notable exception, very little changed in the Upper Peninsula high school football polls from last week to this week.

No area team changed its place, and really, only one vote changed where it was noticed most — atop 8-player voting.

In these polls voted upon by select members of the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association and released today, Forest Park took back the No. 1 spot from Pickford, which held it for a week after dropping Ishpeming.

But the Trojans really only received one more vote and Pickford one fewer, enough for them to switch positions.

On Friday, Forest Park took out Lake Linden-Hubbell 59-6 while the Panthers handled Rudyard 43-0.

Both those top teams remain a perfect 5-0, the same as No. 3 Munising, which thumped Newberry 50-18 also on Friday.

Norway (4-1) stayed fourth after a 60-22 shelling of St. Ignace on Friday, while North Central (4-1) remained fifth after popping Ironwood 50-8 on Friday.

In 11-player, Marquette (4-1) held onto third and Negaunee (4-1) to fourth.

The Sentinels got back on defense, blanking Sault Ste. Marie 49-0 for its fourth shutout in five games.

Negaunee took out Hancock 48-20, each game on Friday.

At the top, Menominee remained a unanimous No. 1 with a 50-0 blanking of Houghton on Friday, while Kingsford downed Calumet 14-0, also Friday, as both of those top teams are 5-0.

In fifth in 11-player remains Iron Mountain (5-0), which slammed L’Anse 63-8 on Friday.

In games this week involving area teams, Superior Central is at Engadine at 6 p.m. Thursday.

On Friday at 6:30 p.m., Escanaba will be at Marquette, while at 7 p.m. that day is Negaunee at Westwood, Norway at Munising, Gwinn at Iron Mountain, West Iron County at Manistique and Newberry at Pickford.

On Saturday at 1 p.m., Ishpeming travels downstate to play at Merrill.

The Negaunee-Westwood game is the only high school football game to involve two Marquette County during the entire regular season.

That’s because Marquette plays a bigger-schools schedule to help in its quest to make the MHSAA Division 3 playoffs, Gwinn faces only the smaller schools in its half of the West PAC, and Ishpeming now plays eight-player football, which no other county school does.

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