Menominee senior Aiden Nerat (7) hugs junior Nathan Komp (2) after Komp scored a touchdown during a MHSAA Division 7 district semifinal game against Houghton Lake on Nov. 2, 2024 at Walton Blesch Field in Menominee. (“The Big Dog” Mitch Vosburg/Daily Press)

ESCANABA –What happens when two high school football juggernauts collide in Week 11?

We’ll find out the answer to that question on Saturday at Walton Blesch Field as Menominee host Traverse City St Francis in a Division 7 district championship game showdown.

The Maroons, at least in the U.P., are fairly well known. On the other side of the bridge Menominee is a familiar name after last season’s run to Ford Field.

Then there’s Traverse City St Francis. South of the bridge the Gladiators are well know. But on this side of the bridge it’s a name that’s not 100% familiar.

Until right now.

Since 2000 James Cook has served as a sports reporter for the Traverse City Record Eagle. In 2024 he serves as Senior Sports Reporter. If there’s anyone who knows the Gladiators, it’s Cook.

Daily Press Sports Editor “The Big Dog” Mitch Vosburg chatted with Cook to help get a beat on the Gladiators before Saturday’s 1 p.m. kickoff.

Let’s go behind enemy lines.

Big Dog: First thing’s first, how would you describe Traverse City St Francis in 2024?

James Cook: They’ve had a pretty good rebound year from an off year in 2023 where they had their first losing season in quite a long time. They went 4-5, which is very uncharacteristic for them. But they were coming off of a state championship appearance and graduated a lot of people between 22 and 23 so last year’s team for St Francis was pretty young. I think they had to replace every starter on offense, and I think all but two or three on defense last year. So it was almost a completely new crew. They had some growing pains from that, and seems like they’ve learned from those this year and put those to good use. Their three losses (this season) have all been to two good teams that have won seven or more games. They played a pretty competitive schedule throughout the season, and have posted pretty good results most of the time.

BD: I know St Francis runs a Power-T on offense. How would you describe their offense when it goes right and when it goes wrong?

JC: When it goes right they just run the ball repeatedly, and it doesn’t seem to matter what the other teams do. Like you said it’s a Power-T, kind of a Wing-T, where they’ll have some jet sweeps and run a lot of counters and full back dives, traps, variety of plays, but pretty much from the same formation all the time. It’s one where defenses have a hard time because there’s trickery as far having the full backfield, identifying which player has the ball, which is one of the hallmarks of the Wing-T. They have the ability to pass the ball with Tyler Endres at quarterback. He’s got a pretty solid arm. They just prefer to run the ball when they can.

BD: Talk to me about head coach Josh Sellers. How would describe him as a head coach?

JC: He’s kind of the laid back guy of the head of the coaches, the coordinators are a little more fiery. He’s the guy who’s out there kind of maintaining, calming the team while staying calm and collected throughout the game and talking to the referees. He does a good job of doing that, managing the game and letting the coordinators do their jobs calling plays.

BD: Not every team gets a big running back, but I saw Eli Biggar listed at 6-foot 3, 200 pounds. How would you describe him as a running back?

JC: Well, I’m not sure how much he’s going to play this week. He missed last week with an arm injury. I can’t remember if it’s a separated shoulder or a forearm injury. But a couple weeks ago, in their homecoming game, he got hurt in the first half and was on the homecoming court in a sling, missed the game or two, then came back and I think aggravated it. They kind of kept him out of the game last week against Charlevoix as a precaution, and so he should be playing. Whether that’ll be a running back I don’t know. It’ll probably be linebacker first. They have a pretty good roster of running backs that they run it in and out of the game. I mean, you’ll see in a lot of games five, six different guys carrying the ball, and that’s even before you know if a game gets out of hand and they start putting JV players and empty the bench a little bit in the backfield.

BD: St Francis is 13-5 against U.P. teams in the postseason since 2000, but it’s never faced Menominee. This game has a different feel to it, right?

JC: Yeah, St Francis has had a good record overall against up teams in the playoffs, but the record when going to the up has not been nearly as good. You have to go back, I think it’s 2014, when they played at Ishpeming. They lost that game. The year before in 2013 at West Iron County, they lost that game. The early 2000s they lost a couple at Norway. So they’ve had a lot more trouble beating up teams when they’re on the road, for obvious reasons. I mean, long trips, and Menominee is going to be no exception. That’s a very long trip.

BD: I know we talked about Eli Biggar, but who’s a kid or two who could fly under the radar and wreak havoc on Saturday?

JC: They have a decent amount of guys. Charlie Olivier is a guy that missed the first half of the regular season with recovering from a broken leg. He’s a starting linebacker and also plays running back, like Biggar coincidentally. Fortunately for St Francis he came back right around the time Biggar got hurt. So it’s kind of like they, as soon as they lost one linebacker, they got another one back. So it worked out pretty well for them, and it looks like this week they’ll have both of them to go in at linebacker along with their their normal starters, Matthew Rialson and Jack Gruber.

BD: You’ve seen a lot of St Francis football. What’s going be key for them if they want to walk out of the U.P. with a win?

JC: I think it’s handling the trip. It just seems to be that the that going on the road in the up to them has been a hang up over the years, and I imagine that up teams get that same thing when they have to come down here and make 6, 7, 8, hour bus trips, and then get off the bus and play a football game an hour later or so. It’s just something that’s not easy to do. I think that’s something that they that they kind of have to overcome in that game.