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Esky fills a dozen All-U.P. spots

Bryant Maki

MARQUETTE — Finishing three straight regular seasons 7-2 can have a lot of positives effects on a football program — just ask the Escanaba Eskymos.

The latest example of that was on display at the 70th annual football meeting held by the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association in Marquette Thursday, as the Eskymos filled 12 spots on All-U.P. football teams — twice as many as any other team.

The Eskymos, who host Cadillac today at 1 p.m. in a Division 4 district opener, had three players named to the Dream Team defense and two to the Dream Team offense, while also filling seven spots on the large school division first team.

Dream Team selections include offensive tackle Garrett Johnson, wide receiver Bryant Maki, defensive end Dayton Miron, linebacker Kyle Krutina and defensive back Tyler Lawson.

Johnson — along with first team selection Jacob Burch — were instrumental pieces on Esky’s offensive line.

Dayton Miron

“These two seniors were our bookend tackles on offense this year,” Esky coach Dave Howes said. “These are two hard-working, disciplined players that have started for us for two years. They have been so consistent for us the past two seasons and are a huge reason for our success the last couple of years.”

Maki — a 6-foot-3, 185-pound junior wide receiver — averaged five catches and 80 yards per game. He finished the season with seven touchdowns.

“Bryant was our main target through the air and our opponents knew it, yet he was still able to put up some impressive numbers,” Howes said. “He’s an extremely hard worker that will go up and get the ball.”

Miron was one of many talented Esky defensive lineman who averaged six tackles per game, had six sacks and forced three fumbles.

“He’s one of the hardest working kids I have ever coached,” Howes said. “Just like Riley Lamb, Dayton made it tough for opponents to run outside. He had a tremendous year. Dayton used his speed, strength, and Krutina averaged 10 tackles a game playing weakside linebacker, forced three fumbles, had two fumble recoveries and one interception.

Kyle Krutina

“Kyle was as consistent as they come,” Howes said. “He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever coached — just like Dayton Miron. Teams had a hard time running weak on us because of him.”

Lawson — a junior who was a Great Northern Conference first team selection for the second year in a row — picked off six passes, had one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.

“He stepped up his play this year as a junior,” Howes said. “He played safety and was a ballhawk. He was also there to support the run, as he averaged 6.5 tackles per game.”

Esky’s first team selections include Burch, quarterback Ethan Silverstone, tailback Josh Bruntjens, defensive end Kahler Geyer, GNC defensive player of the year defensive back Grant LaMarche, and Lawson also was selected as kick returner.

Manistique senior standout Schyler Andersen was named to the Dream Team as a tailback and punter, and also garnered some small school offensive player of the year consideration.

Tyler Lawson

Andersen broke a school record for rushing yards in a season with 1,491, passing Ron Rubick’s old record of 1,388 set in 1959. Andersen also rushed for 22 touchdowns and averaged 6.4 yards per carry. As a punter, he punted over 20 times for over 700 yards, averaging 35 yards a punt. He also went 20-for-49 passing for 345 yards.

“It was no secret all throughout the year that he was going to get all the touches or almost all the touches,” Emeralds’ coach Todd Kangas said. “We tried to give him the ball as many times as possible and other teams knew that, but he was still able to put up those numbers.

“The thing that jumps out to me is he had runs of over 50 and 60 yards in every single game, and in some games he had multiple runs of over 50 and 60 yards. I haven’t saw one kid who can catch him yet. He might not have won the 100-meter dash in the U.P., but I still haven’t found a kid on the football field who can catch him. He has great football speed and he’s just an athlete. Those are things you just really can’t coach.”

Gladstone had four kids named to the large school first team, including tailback Cole Hansen, defensive tackle Hunter Potier, linebacker Ryan Polley and defensive back Caden Alworden.

Hansen, who was nominated primarily as a safety but got picked as a running back after not making the Dream Team at safety, ran for over 600 yards and seven touchdowns. He finished the season with 112 tackles, finishing as Gladstone’s all-time leading tackler. He also picked off four passes to give him 14 for his career.

Grant LaMarche

“He’s a player the other team has to game plan for,” Braves’ coach Jeff Hansen said. “He was our leading tackler as a safety, which speaks a lot about his football instincts in general. He understands the game so well and helps out in run support. He has things you can’t coach like instincts, and he’s good at both parts of defense — tackling and having ball skills. There isn’t a part of playing defensive back he isn’t good at. I don’t think there’s a finer football player in the U.P.

“As a tailback, it was unfortunate because once we played a few games teams just made us pass to win and took him away, so he doesn’t have a lot of eye-popping stats despite being a really good running back.”

Potier finished with 41 tackles, 13 tackles for loss and had seven sacks as a sophomore.

“He’s another guy that’s super disruptive on defense and teams try to run away from. He’s just an absolute animal,” coach Hansen said. “The Escanaba offensive line coach told me they knew going in that guy was going to be a problem. You’ll be hard-pressed to find another guy in the whole U.P. that creates that kind of havoc week in and week out.”

Polley was a tackling machine, finishing with 105 and 10 for loss. He also forced four fumbles.

Ethan Silverstone

“He’s a grinder, but he’s just one of these guys that’s a tackling machine,” coach Hansen said. “He’s always easy to spot because he hits really hard. Every single game he has one of those car crash type tackles where everyone goes ‘holy smokes’. Ryan is a true sideline to sideline linebacker, which is obvious by the number of tackles and forced fumbles he had.”

Alworden led the Braves with six interceptions and was also great at tackling in the open field, finishing with 67 tackles.

“We would end up matching him up with the other team’s best receiver and he had the ability to lock them up when isolated,” coach Hansen said. “You can see that by the raw numbers he produced. He’s a heck of a defensive back. Every single week he was guarding their best players and then he also rotates back to safety to play cover 2, which says a lot about him. His ball skills when the ball is in the air or on a 50-50 ball are really good. You can tell he’s a baseball player because of his hand-eye coordination. He’s also a really ferocious tackler in the open field. Corners don’t get enough credit because If he doesn’t make those tackles, the scoreboard lights up. His ability to tackle in space and make plays on the football are his great strengths.”

Escanaba defensive end Riley Lamb received special mention after receiving at least two votes. Gladstone punter Ian Schwalbach, Esky linebackers Hunter Larson and Ryan Randall, Bark River-Harris offensive guard Austin Kleiman and BR-H quarterback Nick Javurek all received honorable mention.

Josh Bruntjens

Jake Burch

Brett Schlenvogt

Kahler Geyer

Cole Hansen

Ryan Polley

Hunter Potier

Caden Alworden

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