Local Sports

Cinderella story ends: Negaunee’s dream playoff runs ends downstate with close loss

WEST BRANCH -- A season after a one-point playoff loss to the same team, Negaunee found itself on the short end of a similar ending against West Branch Ogemaw Heights on Friday evening.

The Miners, playing on the Falcons' home field in an MHSAA Division 5 regional championship game, were right in the mix all night long, but came up just short in a tough-to-swallow 15-12 season-ending loss.

A year ago, these two teams met in the D-5 opening round, with Ogemaw winning 29-28 in overtime.

"Yeah, two years in a row, we've lost a nailbiter here," Negaunee head coach Jeff Niemi said. "It's disappointing, but I'm proud of the kids, the effort was great.

"We missed an assignment on their long touchdown run, but other than that, I thought our defense was outstanding tonight. I'm also giving credit to them, though; they're a great football team and their defense was pretty stout tonight, too."

It was also yet another tough loss in Negaunee's 7-5 season. The five losses, all to playoff teams, came by a total of 22 points.

The Miners had faced an uphill battle as the only four-loss team to reach the third round of the 11-player playoffs in Division 5.

The Miners had come into this game with playoff wins over Shepherd and Kingsford the previous two weeks.

"Great group of kids, we played a pretty tough schedule and ended up with a 5-4 record (in the regular season)," Niemi said.

"I don't think that's an indication of the kind of football team we were. I think we proved that tonight, I think that we are a pretty good football team."

It certainly was a great effort from the Negaunee defense. The Falcons entered having rushed for 400 yards in each of their previous four games, but Negaunee made them work for it on this night.

Ogemaw standout running back Brenson Keith broke free on a 35-yard touchdown run about four minutes in, making it 7-0, but the Miners gave up just 175 rushing yards overall.

"They kept us in the game," Niemi said of his team's defense. "That first drive (Keith) had a big run play, and he's dangerous and he's only a junior, too, so he's going to be a tough one for people next year, too.

"The defense, we got them into a bunch of three-and-outs after that long run and that was key for us to be hanging around in the game."

The Miners had a great scoring chance late in the first quarter, reaching as far as the Ogemaw 17-yard line. On a fourth-down play, Negaunee quarterback Kyle Waterman took a shot to the end zone, but Ogemaw's Eli Smith made a nice diving play for an interception.

Negaunee did cash in with 4:39 left in the first half, when Waterman faked a pitch and ran in for a 3-yard touchdown run. A failed 2-pointer left them behind 7-6, though.

The Miners had a couple more chances deep in Ogemaw territory, but they weren't able to convert, leaving them a bit frustrated on those missed scoring opportunities.

"We've been talking about it all week, we get into the red zone, we have to finish and capitalize on that," Niemi said.

Ogemaw used a time-consuming drive to ice the game late, scoring on an 11-yard TD run by Corbin Kanitz. Kanitz also ran in the 2-point conversion to make it 15-6 with 1:34 to play.

"Unfortunately, the last drive they got us and we just couldn’t get that last stop," Niemi said.

The Miners scored their second touchdown on the final play of the game, with Waterman firing a touchdown pass to Evan DellAngelo.

Waterman finished 18 of 29 for 165 yards, with one touchdown and two interceptions as he also had a rushing touchdown. Negaunee's Mason Swenor had 14 carries for 32 yards.

The Falcons' Keith finished with 103 yards and a TD on 19 carries, while Kanitz ran nine times for 72 yards and a score.

Ben Murphy is based in the downstate Tawas area and writes for several publications, including the Munising Beacon, St. Ignace News and Iosco County News-Herald. He has written stories about a number of Mining Journal area teams during their playoff runs in recent years.