Portage Northern gets its first home win of the season, 58-29 over Kalamazoo Central

PORTAGE, Mich. — Kalamazoo Central has lost two straight. Portage Northern has not won at home. One of those streaks was going to end Friday, Oct. 9, when the Maroon Giants visited the Huskies.

Both teams are 1-1 in conference play. MaxPreps standings list Northern second and Central third, behind unbeaten Portage Central (5-1, 4-0).

Kalamazoo Central (2-3) opened with a 27-20 home loss to Jenison, then beat Renaissance 54-12 and won 42-20 at Lakeview. Since then it has lost 42-12 at Portage Central and, on Oct. 2, 36-23 at home in a nonconference game, MaxPreps results show.

Portage Northern (2-4) has scored 142 points and allowed 204. Both of its wins came on the road, 46-8 at Princeton and 42-26 at Lakeview. At home it has lost to Caledonia 48-12, to Portage Central 25-14 and, last week, to St. Joseph 64-28.

The shared opponents offer little to separate them. Central beat Lakeview by 22 and Northern beat Lakeview by 16. Portage Central beat Central by 30 and Northern by 11.

Portage Central, ranked 38th in the state by MaxPreps, has won five straight since a season-opening loss to Central Catholic and has outscored its four league opponents 166-33. It played a league road game at Battle Creek Central on Friday, Oct. 9, and hosts Mattawan on Oct. 16.

Kalamazoo Central hosts St. Joseph on Oct. 16 and Loy Norrix on Oct. 23. Northern plays at Norrix on Oct. 16 and at Lakeshore on Oct. 23.

Updated Oct. 12, 2026: Portage Northern won 58-29 for its first home win of the season, MaxPreps results show. The Huskies are 3-4 and 2-1 in conference play; Kalamazoo Central has lost three straight and is 2-4 and 1-2. Portage Central beat Battle Creek Central 61-19 the same night to go 6-1 and 5-0 in the league. MaxPreps lists that game as a league contest; an earlier version of this story called it nonconference.

Updated Oct. 13, 2026: The headline and summary were changed to report the result of the game this story previewed.

Sources:
MaxPreps, Kalamazoo Central varsity football 2026 schedule and results, https://www.maxpreps.com/mi/kalamazoo/kalamazoo-central-maroon-giants/football/schedule/
MaxPreps, Portage Northern varsity football 2026 schedule and results, https://www.maxpreps.com/mi/portage/portage-northern-huskies/football/schedule/
MaxPreps, Portage Central varsity football 2026 schedule and results, https://www.maxpreps.com/mi/portage/portage-central-mustangs/football/schedule/
Photo: Andrew Jameson, “Old Central High School, Kalamazoo MI,” June 26, 2010, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/), cropped and color-corrected; derivative under the same ShareAlike license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OldCentralHighSchoolKalamazooMI.JPG

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Tags: Kalamazoo · Sports · Portage Northern