Perfectly good for the U.P.: Miners, Hematites only 2-1 teams cracking first football poll
Ishpeming’s Kian Gauthier, top right, intercepts a ball intended for North Central's Kaden Malone, left, and runs it back for a “pick-six” touchdown during their high school football game played at the Hematites’ field in Ishpeming on Sept. 4. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)
Ishpeming’s Dax Kakkuri waits for the snap to begin a play during a high school football game played against North Central at the Hematites’ field in Ishpeming on Sept. 4. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)
Ishpeming’s Kian Gauthier, top right, intercepts a ball intended for North Central's Kaden Malone, left, and runs it back for a “pick-six” touchdown during their high school football game played at the Hematites’ field in Ishpeming on Sept. 4. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)
Ishpeming’s Dax Kakkuri waits for the snap to begin a play during a high school football game played against North Central at the Hematites’ field in Ishpeming on Sept. 4. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)
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MARQUETTE -- Two Marquette County teams appear in the first Upper Peninsula high school football rankings released this morning.
Negaunee and Ishpeming are also the only two teams to break into their respective top-fives despite not being undefeated. That usually means voters from the U.P. Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association highly regard the teams, their schedules or even both.
This week's games involving area teams include eight Friday contests and two on Saturday.
On Friday, all at 7 p.m. EDT, Negaunee plays at Kingsford, Ishpeming goes to Forest Park, Gwinn hosts Hancock, Westwood is at Houghton, L'Anse hosts Iron Mountain, Munising plays at North Central, Newberry travels to Indian River to face Onekama, and Manistique is a West Iron County.
Saturday's encounters have Superior Central hosting Rapid River at noon, while Marquette invites in Cadillac at 6 p.m.
Here are breakdowns of each poll:
11-player
The Miners are 2-1 and in fourth place among 11-player teams, receiving 10 polling points from the five voters.
Negaunee opened with a 30-28 victory at Marquette on Aug. 27, adding on a 42-6 win at home vs. Gladstone on Sept. 4, before falling at Calumet 21-18 on Friday.
Menominee tops the 11-player list as a unanimous No. 1, getting all five first-place votes and the maximum 25 points. Like the rest of the top five outside Negaunee, the Maroons are a perfect 3-0.
Menominee, which plays at Negaunee on Oct. 9, has three decisive victories this summer as it tries to defend its MHSAA Division 7 state championship -- 60-6 at home over Marinette, Wisconsin, on Aug. 28, 49-19 at Marquette on Sept. 3, and 50-0 at Westwood on Friday.
Kingsford slots in at No. 2 with 19 votes, Calumet third with 16 votes and Bark River-Harris in fifth with five tallies.
The Flivvers dropped Escanaba 35-16 at home on Aug. 27, defeated Houghton 34-6 at home on Sept. 3 and went to Gladstone and won 35-0 on Friday.
In addition to its victory over Negaunee last weekend, Calumet knocked off Houghton at home 14-7 on Aug. 28 and went to Westwood and won 27-8 on Sept. 3.
BR-H chalked up a 40-18 win at home over Westwood on Aug. 28, dropped Gwinn 54-6 at home on Sept. 3 and eked out a 38-33 win at Iron Mountain on Friday.
Negaunee, Westwood, Menominee, Kingsford, Calumet, Gladstone and Houghton are members of the Copper Division of the Western Peninsula Athletic Conference, usually known as the West PAC.
Gwinn, L'Anse, Manistique, BR-H, Iron Mountain, Hancock and West Iron County make up the Iron Division of the West PAC.
Marquette joins Escanaba and Sault Ste. Marie as the U.P. members of the Big North Conference, which also includes Lower Peninsula schools Petoskey, Alpena, Gaylord and Cadillac.
For the playoffs, the most important criteria is which of the eight divisions a team plays in -- based on enrollment -- for what the rest of the field will look like and also the base number of playoff points received for playing that team.
Marquette is the lone U.P. team in Division 3 as the largest enrollment school in the U.P., while Escanaba and the Soo are in Division 4.
Negaunee, Kingsford, Houghton and Hancock are in Division 5; with Westwood, Calumet and Gladstone in Division 6; Menominee in Division 7; and Gwinn, L'Anse, Manistique, BR-H, Iron Mountain and WIC all in Division 8.
By the way, the Lower Peninsula members of the Big North are all in Division 3, except for Alpena being in Division 2.
8-player
Like Negaunee in 11-player, Ishpeming is 2-1 among a field otherwise made up of 3-0 squads.
The Hematites are tied for fifth with St. Ignace, each receiving five poll points.
Ishpeming opened the season on Aug. 27 with a 52-36 loss at Lake Linden-Hubbell, then won twice at home, knocking off North Central 50-22 on Sept. 3 and Stephenson 80-42 on Saturday.
Eight-player polling is quite divided, with three teams splitting the five first-place votes. Not surprisingly, they occupy the top three spots, but oddly enough, the team with only one first-place vote is entrenched at No. 1.
That is LL-H, which received 20 voting points. Norway is second, getting two first-placers and 18 points, while Pickford also snagged a pair of first-place votes but is third with 17 points.
That leaves Forest Park in fourth with 10 poll points.
After its opening triumph over Ishpeming, LL-H also won at Ironwood 44-14 on Sept. 4 and at Munising 50-12 on Friday.
Norway won at Munising 50-2 on Aug. 27, knocked off Bessemer/Gogebic at home 50-0 on Sept. 3 and picked up a victory at Ironwood 36-12 on Friday.
Pickford won at home 48-14 over North Dickinson on Aug. 28, won at Rudyard 55-6 on Sept. 4 and picked up a forfeit win over Brimley last week.
Forest Park, which hosts Ishpeming on Friday night, won at Ontonagon 44-6 on Aug. 28, downed Munising at home 41-14 on Sept. 3 and won at Bessemer/Gogebic 41-24 on Friday.
St. Ignace blanked Cedarville 55-0 at home on Aug. 28, defeated Rapid River 60-12 at home on Sept. 3, and won 41-16 at Newberry on Friday.
Eight-player had some big changes to U.P. conference lineups this season, with eastern end teams breaking off from the Great Lakes Eight to help form two divisions of the Bridge Alliance Conference.
The Great Lakes Eight Conference remains with two divisions, mostly larger schools forming the nine-team West Division and including Ishpeming, Munising, LL-H, Forest Park, Norway, North Central, Ironwood, Bessemer/Gogebic and Ontonagon.
The other division, which has been called the East or Central Division, has five squads with Superior Central, Mid Peninsula, North Dickinson, Rapid River and Stephenson.
One listing also has the new Calumet Copper Island Academy in the East/Central Division, another has it as an independent.
Meanwhile, the Bridge Alliance Conference also has two divisions, with the Straits Division having five of its six teams from the eastern U.P. joining Indian River Inland Lakes -- Newberry, Pickford, St. Ignace, Rudyard and Brimley.
The Valley Division has two U.P. teams among its seven, Engadine and Cedarville, along with below-the-bridge squads Gaylord St. Mary, Bellaire, Central Lake, Onaway and Fife Lake Forest Area.
Just like 11-player, teams are divided into divisions, but with a lot fewer teams playing 8-player statewide, there are just two divisions.
Included in the Division 1 larger schools list is Ishpeming, Munising, Newberry, Norway, Forest Park, Ironwood, Bessemer/Gogebic, Ontonagon, Rudyard and Brimley.
Division 2 has U.P. schools Superior Central, LL-H, Rapid River, North Central, Mid Peninsula, North Dickinson, Stephenson, Copper Island Academy, Engadine, Cedarville and St. Ignace.
Story contents based on an email received from the U.P. Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee's email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.