Justin St. Ours | Daily Press Escanaba’s Bryant Maki powers through a tackle from Sault Ont., Korah’s Tyler Brechin as Noah Gasley (3) prepares to make contact Sept. 13 at Escanaba. The third-ranked Eskymos face a stiff test at second-ranked Menominee tonight at 8 p.m. EDT.

ESCANABA — This might be the week we all find out who the best football teams in the U.P. really are. With Escanaba visiting Menominee, Iron Mountain visiting Calumet, and North Central hosting Forest Park, that’s a pretty safe bet.

Arguably the biggest game of the week — third-ranked Escanaba at second-ranked Menominee — kicks off tonight at 8 p.m. EDT. This game will have great implications in the Great Northern Conference race. Each team is 4-1, but the Maroons are 1-0 in the conference and Esky is 1-1.

Fresh off a 34-8 bounce-back win over Kingsford last week, Esky coach Dave Howes said the Eskymos will approach this one like any other game.

“I thought we played way too tight against Marquette (Sept. 21 in a 17-14 loss),” Howes said. “Last week we played a little bit looser. Sometimes you lose focus a little bit when you play tight. We’re just going to go down there and try to execute the game plan.”

The Eskymos accomplished that against Kingsford, putting together a complete game on both sides of the ball.

“I thought we executed the game plan pretty well and we ran real well inside the tackles,” Howes said. “The offensive line did a real good job, and we got good production out of Josh Bruntjens, Dayton Miron, Kyle Krutina and Ethan SIlverstone, our quarterback. We did a good job of establishing the running game to open up the passing game.”

The Maroons will certainly pose a new challenge. They have been dominant in their four wins, including lopsided victories over Marinette, Gladstone, Peshtigo, Wis. and Boyne City. Their only loss was a 31-14 defeat against a tough Kaukauna, Wis. team in week two.

“They have a lot of returning guys. Some of them are three-years starters, and they’re very disciplined,” Howes said. “They’re just going to play Menominee football. They’re going to come right at you until you prove you can stop it. We need to execute what we need to do, too, but it’s going to be a physical game.”

Howes noted he isn’t a fan of Thursday night games, but realizes there’s not much that can be done about it with officiating shortages.

“I don’t like it, to be honest,” he said. “It’s one less day of getting kids ready and getting kids healthy. I’m not a big fan of playing Thursday night games, but it is what it is. You got to do what you got to do. Two 4-1 teams should be playing on Friday, but with the official problem, what are you going to do?”

Rain is in the forecast throughout the day, and a jayvee contest beforehand could make for some tough field conditions.

“It’s going to be the same for both teams. It’s just one of those things where we have to adapt to the environment,” Howes said. “It might suit them a little better or us a little better, but there won’t be any excuses at the end of the game.”

Gladstone (2-3) takes center stage Friday night, looking to snap a three-game losing streak when it hosts Sault Ste. Marie (4-1) for its homecoming game at 7 p.m.

Despite a 31-7 road loss in a downpour to unbeaten Maple City Glen Lake a week ago, Braves’ coach Jeff Hansen felt his team played much better than in previous losses.

“The film showed what we saw on the field during the game. We played a tough opponent in tough conditions during the game,” Hansen said. “We were definitely hitting hard, but execution for each team wasn’t as clean because of conditions. We just lost to a really good team. We saw much better football than we played against Kingsford (Sept. 20 in a 20-7 loss). Our personnel switches and adujstments definitely paid off. We’re on an upward trajectory in terms of how we’re playing.”

The Sault, which is coming off a 24-12 win at Ogemaw Heights, has lost just one time this season — 31-0 to Marquette. Hansen noted the key to beating them is forcing them to play from behind, getting them out of their comfort zone and speeding the game up, which is what Marquette did.

“The Sault is a football team with a big front — they’re grinders,” Hansen said. “They’re perfectly happy to grind out a game and win 8-6. Their game with Petoskey was 0-0 at the end of regulation and they went into overtime and won it on a two-point conversion.

“If you play their tempo, most teams that have played that way have lost. We have to keep them out of sequence and keep them out of the unbalanced run they like to do. First down defense is critical. We want to stop them for no gain so they have to call plays they don’t want to call, and make them have to score so they have to come from behind. They’re just not that type of team to put up a lot of points. They’re happy just putting up a score and then trying to grind it out the rest of the way. We want to score early and get them out of sequence.”

A Braves’ offense that has managed just one touchdown in each of its last three games will have to execute better to make that happen. It might be without slot receiver Zach Hanson, who is listed as day-to-day following a bone bruise injury in his leg that he suffered last week.

“I think it would do a lot for our offensive confidence to get in a rhythm and stack good drives together. We’ve moved the ball well between the 20s, and then we start sniffing around when we get to the red zone,” Hansen said. “Last week our drives didn’t stop because of anything we did, Glen Lake just played good defense. We eliminated red zone mistakes because of what we practiced during the week. I expect us to improve when it comes to game time against the Sault as well.”

Hansen says homecoming is always a fun week, but it comes down to winning what he described as a “must-win” game in terms of trying to make the playoffs.

“It’s really festive and there’s activities for the kids every day. The coach inside me says there’s a lot of distractions every day, but you want to let the kids enjoy themselves,” he said. “But ultimately, the week is about the game, and nobody needs a win more than us. We’re totally focused on beating the Sault at home this week, and we’re going to do everything in our power to do it.

“This game is what our season comes down to — we’re absolutely in must-win mode every week. If our offense keeps rolling and the defense plays as hard as it has been, I think we’ll be all right. We’re in must-win territory right now.”

Elsewhere, Manistique hosts Munising, Bark River-Harris travels to Norway, Rapid River hosts Ontonagon and Superior Central travels to Rudyard.

Action concludes Saturday when top-ranked North Central hosts third-ranked Forest Park in an eight-player game that could have home-field advantage implications for the playoffs, while Carney-Nadeau looks to get back on track at Stephenson. Both games kick off at 2 p.m. EDT.