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Sports · Upper Peninsula

Northern Michigan and the U.P.: High school football playoff scores, district semifinals

The Mitten Daily · October 31, 2026, 9:51 a.m. ET · Upper Peninsula

A high school football game on a gold field in front of crowded grandstands, with players in dark jerseys watching from the sideline.
A high school football game at Memorial Stadium in Commerce, Texas, on Sept. 1, 2017, in a file photo. It does not show any of the Michigan teams in this roundup. Photo: Michael Barera / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), cropped and color-adjusted; derivative under the same ShareAlike license.

East Jordan ended Iron Mountain’s season with a 42-35 win, and Bark River-Harris beat L’Anse 59-30 as the MHSAA playoffs opened Friday in Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. Kingsley rolled past Mason County Central 63-22 at home, UpNorthLive reported, and Cadillac beat Marquette 31-19 to earn a Division 3 district final against Mount Pleasant.

Every score below is a final listed the same way by MaxPreps’ MHSAA brackets and at least one other outlet, and no outlet we checked (the Associated Press scoreboard, High School On SI, MLive and local TV and radio) reported it differently. Where those outlets disagreed, the game is left out and named at the end. Each heading links to that community’s Mitten Daily page, and “Next” is the next-round game (Nov. 6–7) from the MaxPreps brackets.

Fourteen U.P. schools made the playoffs and nine played Friday, WLUC TV6 reported. Several more play Saturday, listed below.

Upper Peninsula

  • Bark River-Harris 59, L’Anse 30 — Division 8. Next: Maple City Glen Lake.
  • East Jordan 42, Iron Mountain 35 — Division 8; the loss ended Iron Mountain’s season, WLUC reported. Next: Beal City.

Marquette

  • Cadillac 31, Marquette 19 — Division 3, at Cadillac. Next: Mount Pleasant.

Sault Ste. Marie and the Eastern U.P.

  • Pickford 40, Mio-AuSable 12 — 8-player Division 1 regional semifinal. The one exception to our method: MaxPreps had not posted a final, so this score rests on the Associated Press and WLUC, which agree. Next: Ishpeming.

The Straits

  • Gaylord St. Mary 55, St. Ignace 6 — 8-player Division 2 regional semifinal. Next: the winner of Saturday’s Lake Linden-Hubbell–North Central game.
  • Charlevoix 35, Oscoda 0 — Division 7. Next: Harrison.

Traverse City

  • Kingsley 63, Mason County Central 22 — Division 6. Next: the winner of Saturday’s Traverse City St. Francis–Calumet game.

Up North

  • Manistee 34, Manton 18 — Division 7; Manton led 18-7 around halftime, MLive reported, and Manistee scored the next 27 points. Next: the winner of Saturday’s Menominee–Lakeview game.
  • West Branch Ogemaw Heights 36, Reed City 7 — Division 5; last year’s state semifinalist led 21-0 at halftime, MLive reported. Next: Remus Chippewa Hills.

Traverse City’s big schools: both are out. Traverse City Central fell 49-42 at Muskegon Mona Shores after leading 21-7, and Traverse City West lost 51-43 to visiting Portage Northern. Those games are in our West Michigan roundup.

Still to play Saturday: Kingsford vs. Tri County Area, Traverse City St. Francis vs. Calumet and Menominee vs. Lakeview in 11-player, and Lake Linden-Hubbell vs. North Central and Traverse City St. Patrick vs. Onekama in 8-player, according to the MaxPreps brackets.

Left out because published finals disagree: Negaunee–Shepherd (the AP and WLUC reported Negaunee 34-26, while MaxPreps and High School On SI listed Shepherd 19-18), Ishpeming–Rudyard (Ishpeming won, but the reported scores differ) and Maple City Glen Lake–Frankfort (Glen Lake won; scores differ).

More district semifinal scores: Southeast Michigan · Mid-Michigan, the Thumb and Blue Water · West Michigan · Statewide roundup

Sources:
MaxPreps, “2026 Michigan High School Football Playoff Brackets: MHSAA,” Division 2 (district semifinal finals and district final pairings), https://www.maxpreps.com/tournament/A9WR7rvzAkGYahD7V_k34g/5RnxYp_G2EWBCnfJ7_DDmQ/football-26/2026-michigan-high-school-football-playoff-brackets-mhsaa-division-2.htm
MaxPreps, “2026 Michigan High School Football Playoff Brackets: MHSAA,” Division 3 (district semifinal finals and district final pairings), https://www.maxpreps.com/tournament/A9WR7rvzAkGYahD7V_k34g/0dWmuJCe70a7UHTMjFRv1A/football-26/2026-michigan-high-school-football-playoff-brackets-mhsaa-division-3.htm
MaxPreps, “2026 Michigan High School Football Playoff Brackets: MHSAA,” Division 5 (district semifinal finals and district final pairings), https://www.maxpreps.com/tournament/A9WR7rvzAkGYahD7V_k34g/OIYNEjuZmE-mEk7x2tmC4A/football-26/2026-michigan-high-school-football-playoff-brackets-mhsaa-division-5.htm
MaxPreps, “2026 Michigan High School Football Playoff Brackets: MHSAA,” Division 6 (district semifinal finals and district final pairings), https://www.maxpreps.com/tournament/A9WR7rvzAkGYahD7V_k34g/IsNACjnfK0-x9DkYg6wcYg/football-26/2026-michigan-high-school-football-playoff-brackets-mhsaa-division-6.htm
MaxPreps, “2026 Michigan High School Football Playoff Brackets: MHSAA,” Division 7 (district semifinal finals and district final pairings), https://www.maxpreps.com/tournament/A9WR7rvzAkGYahD7V_k34g/kUfbL1AQ60iRad5IHQ1jrQ/football-26/2026-michigan-high-school-football-playoff-brackets-mhsaa-division-7.htm
MaxPreps, “2026 Michigan High School Football Playoff Brackets: MHSAA,” Division 8 (district semifinal finals and district final pairings), https://www.maxpreps.com/tournament/A9WR7rvzAkGYahD7V_k34g/FGmu-V-7wkeHm3_ku0M3lg/football-26/2026-michigan-high-school-football-playoff-brackets-mhsaa-division-8.htm
MaxPreps, “2026 Michigan High School Football Playoff Brackets: MHSAA,” 8-Man 1 (district semifinal finals and district final pairings), https://www.maxpreps.com/tournament/A9WR7rvzAkGYahD7V_k34g/QRkHARrhCEOSwFmoQgshIA/football-26/2026-michigan-high-school-football-playoff-brackets-mhsaa-8-man-1.htm
MaxPreps, “2026 Michigan High School Football Playoff Brackets: MHSAA,” 8-Man 2 (district semifinal finals and district final pairings), https://www.maxpreps.com/tournament/A9WR7rvzAkGYahD7V_k34g/NnVbTVBTNke60dZtSBuznQ/football-26/2026-michigan-high-school-football-playoff-brackets-mhsaa-8-man-2.htm
The Associated Press, “Friday’s Scores,” Oct. 30, 2026 (MHSAA playoff scoreboard), as published by WJFW, https://www.wjfw.com/sports/regional/fridays-scores/article_4b37fcd6-6d28-5247-94ee-e2c6e9101e0b.html
High School On SI, Jack Butler, “Michigan High School Football Final Scores - October 30,” https://www.si.com/high-school/michigan/michigan-high-school-football-final-scores-october-30-01m681y7f7xx
MLive, Jared Purcell, “Live high school football updates for Michigan football playoff district openers,” Oct. 30, 2026 (finals and game notes from MLive reporters’ posts), https://www.mlive.com/highschoolsports/2026/10/live-high-school-football-updates-for-michigan-football-playoff-district-openers.html
UpNorthLive (WPBN/WGTU), “Hometown Highlights 10/30/26,” https://upnorthlive.com/sports/hometown-highlights/hometown-highlights-103026
WLUC TV6, Oliviah Klinski and Beckett Calkins, “Friday Night Fever Week 10 Highlights and Scores,” Oct. 31, 2026, https://www.uppermichiganssource.com/2026/10/31/friday-night-fever-week-10-highlights-scores/
Michigan High School Athletic Association, Football page (tournament dates), https://www.mhsaa.com/sports/football
Photo: Michael Barera, “Lone Oak vs. Commerce football 2017 09 (Commerce on offense).jpg,” Sept. 1, 2017, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), cropped and color-adjusted; derivative under the same ShareAlike license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lone_Oak_vs._Commerce_football_2017_09_(Commerce_on_offense).jpg

Upper Peninsula · More Sports

Tags: Upper Peninsula · Northern Michigan · High School Football · MHSAA Football Playoffs · District Semifinals · Friday Night Football

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