Maroons, Lakes top UP grid polls
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MARQUETTE -- Marquette has made its first appearance in the weekly Upper Peninsula high school football polls conducted by the U.P. Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.
The Sentinels probably didn’t feel they were getting much respect after they have turned an 0-2 start on its head with five straight victories.
Now sporting a 5-2 mark, MSHS is coming off a 49-13 home thrashing of Gaylord on Friday. The Blue Devils have a respectable 3-4 record.
Just ahead of No. 5 Marquette, Negaunee (4-3) moved up a spot from a tie for fourth to No. 3 despite a 38-28 home loss to unanimous No. 1 and undefeated Menominee (7-0) on Friday.
The Miners continue getting respect despite the most losses of any top-five team in either 11- or eight-player rankings, considering their losses have come to formerly ranked Calumet, No. 2 Kingsford and No. 1 Menominee. And that trio of setbacks were by a combined 18 points.
Kingsford (7-0) couldn’t budge Menominee out of the top spot after a narrow 15-8 win over Westwood on Friday.
Bark River-Harris (6-1) remained at No. 4, just not tied for the position now, after thumping Hancock 44-14 on the road on Friday.
Calumet tumbled from No. 3 to the “others receiving votes” purgatory by losing at Escanaba 21-20 on Friday. The Copper Kings received five voting points, two shy of what Marquette got that moved the Sentinels into fifth.
Iron Mountain (5-2) received a vote for the first time this season as the Mountaineers have taken a similar road to Marquette this season -- IM started 1-2 but has won four in row since, including a 41-0 home blanking of L’Anse on Friday.
The first four teams in the eight-player poll remained the same, while Ishpeming (5-2), continued receiving votes as an “others” squad.
The Hematites outscored Ironwood 64-18 on the road on Friday.
Lake Linden-Hubbell (7-0) remained a unanimous No. 1 after pulling out a 42-38 home victory over Forest Park (5-2), which remained No. 3.
Between them is No. 2 Pickford (6-1), a 36-30 double-overtime winner at Indian River Inland Lakes, which still has a solid 4-3 record. Both are members of the Straits Division of the Bridge Alliance Conference.
St. Ignace (6-1), another Straits Division member, held onto No. 4 in the U.P. with a 34-18 home win over Rudyard. The Saints’ only loss this season was to Pickford, while the Panthers’ lone setback was to Lower Peninsula powerhouse Portland St. Patrick.
There’s a new No. 5 team, though, with North Central (5-2) making its first appearance in the poll this fall. The Jets posted a 29-14 home win over Norway (4-3), last week’s No. 5 team that didn’t receive a vote this week.
In this week’s Associated Press state polls, Kingsford is No. 6 in Division 5, while Menominee is No. 1, but not quite unanimously, in Division 7. The Maroons received four of the five first-place votes, with No. 2 Pewamo-Westphalia (7-0) receiving the other.
Also in 11-player, Bark River-Harris is No. 9 in Division 8.
Among eight-player U.P. teams in Division 1, Pickford is No. 3, while Forest Park and Rudyard (5-2) are just outside the top 10.
For eight-player Division 2, LL-H is No. 2, St. Ignace No. 7 and North Central just outside the top 10. The Lakes received two of the five first-place votes, with No. 1 Mendon (7-0) getting the other three.
In an 11-player game tonight, Kingsford has a showdown at Menominee. In eight-player tonight, North Dickinson will host North Central, Ishpeming is at Norway and Forest Park goes to Ironwood.
The regular season concludes after next week’s games, with the first round in both 11- and eight-player playoffs starting Friday and Saturday, Oct. 30-31.
With Iron Mountain’s scheduled game at West Iron County canceled after the Wykons ended their season about a month ago, the Mountaineers will end their regular season hosting Negaunee on Thursday, Oct. 22.
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The Daily News contributed.