High School Football Game of the Week
WHAT: Escanaba (7-1, 3-0) at Kingsford (6-1, 3-0).
WHEN: Friday, 7:30 p.m. EST, Flivver Field.
AT STAKE: The winner wins the outright Great Northern Conference championship and a lot of points for the upcoming state playoffs.
LAST YEAR: Escanaba won, 49-42.
TRENDING: Kingsford has a 19-6 advantage in wins over the past 25 years, but Escanaba has won the last three meetings.
KEY PLAYERS: Kingsford – QB Sawyer Perpich, LB Luke Terrian, OL-DL Liam Gayan, RB-LB Aiden Miller. Escanaba — QB Craig Kamin, RB-DB Scout Wunder, RB-DE Logan Carroll, OL-DL Johnny Schlenvogt, DB Hayden Haslow.
KINGSFORD COACH CHRIS HOFER: “They’ve got a little bit of everything, power game, they’ve got speed. They seem to be getting a lot of big plays. (Defensively) they’re a physical team, they always are. We’ve been able to do some things against them. We just have not been able to stop them in the second half (the past two meetings).”
ESKY COACH DAVE HOWES: “It’s Kingsford football. They execute and they are physical. We know we have our hands full. Both teams know what is at stake. It’s two good teams battling it out for the GNC and that’s the way it should be. Our kids are used to the big game and the big stage.”
NOTABLE: Escanaba has not won the outright GNC title since its state championship season of 1981 … The two teams last played against each other for the outright GNC title in 1995 and Kingsford won 40-14. … Kingsford has won six straight games since a 21-14 season-opening loss to Menasha, Wis. Menasha is 8-1 and alive in the Wisconsin state playoffs … Esky has won six straight games since a 14-7 loss at Petoskey … Esky is ranked No. 1 in the U.P. Big Five poll and No. 9 in the AP Division 4 state poll, while Kingsford is No. 2 in the U.P. and No. 6 in the AP Division 5 poll.
OTHER GAMES: Friday — Gladstone (7-1) at Calumet (5-3), 7; Bark River-Harris (4-4) at Munising (4-3), 7; Carney-Nadeau (2-6) vs. Ontonagon (4-3) at Ewen, 7; Stephenson (7-1) at North Central (5-2), 7:30. Saturday — Rapid River (7-1) at Superior Central (3-5), 1; Manistique (0-8) at Lake Linden-Hubbell (3-4), 1:30.