DETROIT -- The Negaunee football team came all the way down to Ford Field in Detroit from the Upper Peninsula for a chance to win its first state championship in 20 years.
Despite being undefeated at 13-0, Negaunee entered the Division 6 championship game as serious underdogs. But it did not matter if they weren’t favored against a West Catholic team that was 12-1 entering the matchup.
Negaunee just wanted to show it belonged.
For the first 24 minutes and 15 seconds of game time, it proved it could as a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Phil Nelson to open the third quarter made it 14-14. Unfortunately, Negaunee had burned all its fuel to just keep things tied at that point, going into a tailspin as West Catholic dominated the final 23:45 for a 59-14 win.
“We ran out of gas,” Negaunee coach Paul Jacobson said. “We played toe-to-toe with them for a half. We came out (after halftime) and Phil had a great return to start the second half... Yeah, they just kind of rolled that second half on us, that’s for sure.”
Part of the reason Negaunee struggled was the fact that it could not contain West Catholic senior running back Tim Kloska in the second half at all. After limiting the Air Force commit to just 69 yards and no touchdowns in the first half, Kloska ended up finishing with 241 rushing yards and four touchdowns as the Falcons recorded 45 unanswered points, including 31 in the third quarter.
“It’s hard replicate 6-feet and 225 pounds coming at you like that,” Jacobson said of Kloska. “I don’t know if we have anybody that big on our team as far as height and speed and size as it goes. It’s difficult to be able to see that and replicate that in practice and then trying to get that going in a game. I’ll take nothing away from him. He was an excellent back.”
Negaunee managed to keep things close through the first half thanks to being able to control possession. Of the first 24 minutes of the game, Negaunee had the ball for 20 minutes and 3 seconds.
Negaunee did not score until the final play of the second half when Ty Jacobson hit Phil Nelson for a six-yard touchdown pass, cutting the West Catholic lead to 14-7 at the break. Nelson then ran back the kickoff to stun West Catholic to open the third quarter.
“It’s never one player,” Nelson said. “You go down with the team. It’s a team effort. So, it’s no one player... I don’t know what happened in the third quarter, but something happened. Like (Jacobson) said, we woke the sleeping giant. We went down as a team but we stuck together. That’s important. The sun rises tomorrow like coach says. So, I’m just proud of each and every one of them and we stuck together as family.”
Ty Jacobson finished 7-for-12 for 78 yards and a touchdown. Kai Lacar led the rushing attack for Negaunee with 45 yards while Nico Lukkarinen added 40 rushing yards. Nelson had four catches for 28 yards to go along with his receiving touchdown.
“Our team heart has been great all year,” Ty Jacobson said. “We always stuck through the hard moments, battled with our versatility and just stuck with each other. It’s who we are.”
Despite the long trip, the Negaunee faithful came out in strong numbers for a small U.P. school, including a small student section.
“I couldn’t have asked for anything more,” Nelson said. “Negaunee was behind us the whole way and you could see the crow out there. We’re a small town up in the U.P. and no one would have thought that we would have that many fans. It was just really cool to see all them.”
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