This story includes information from the MHSAA. Photo courtesy of MHSAA. Click HERE to see all of the statistics.
Click the AUDIO buttons to hear Josh Kellner's broadcast of the championship game.
DETROIT---The Menominee High School football team on Sunday erased the pain of a heartbreaking 2023 state championship loss by crushing the Schoolcraft Eagles, 34-6, to win the 2025 MHSAA Division Seven state championship at Ford Field in Detroit.
The Maroons scored touchdowns in all four quarters, with senior running back Clayton Miller getting three of them, and Menominee's defense stopped the Eagles on three of their four red zone scoring chances.
“It was great,” Maroons senior Nate Komp said. “It felt amazing. We just played our game. We ran the ball. That's who we are. That's Menominee football. This what we've been working for the last four years. I've been here before, and I didn't like the feeling two years ago.”
That game saw the Maroons lose a nailbiter to Jackson Lumen Christi, 34-30, with many of these current seniors vowing to get back to Detroit. They did that this year by running the table, winning all twelve games they played.
“We just had to keep the foot on the pedal once we got that first one,” Maroons senior quarterback Tanner Theuerkauf said. “Sometimes the lights get a little too bright here, but we came together, locked in, and played Menominee football.”
His older brother, Trevor, came up a bit short in 2023, and is now the quarterback of the Northern Michigan University football team. Tanner says the team stayed focused all season long, with the goal of making the community proud.
“Just grit and just hard work. I mean, you saw it out there, we’ve got 30 guys on our sideline. Growing up in Menominee, you’re going to have 30 guys on your team, if that,” Theuerkauf said.“You look at our offensive line, we have our guard, he’s 150 pounds – you don’t ever see that, and he just does his job and all those guys do their job in the trenches. … Our want to win is just something you don’t see.”
“Different mentality this year with these seniors,” Menominee Coach Chad Brandt said. “Times that I’m not around and they’re running to the locker room and grabbing the footballs and I drive by and they’re out there. That means a lot. And we have linemen that text me, ‘Can we have extra weight-room sessions?’ and those kind of things. It takes a lot of work, and these guys have put it in and I just couldn’t be prouder of this group of guys and for our town and for our school of Menominee because they deserve and they appreciate it and they support us in every way possible.”
Miller rushed for 112 yards on 25 carries, and scored touchdowns on runs of two, five, and 32 yards. Theuerkauf completed 7-of-11 passes for 160 yards and a touchdown. Maverick Geniesse caught that short TD pass, and he had a red zone interception on defense.
“It feels great. I mean, I’ve dreamed about stuff like this. The ultimate goal is to just be the best team player I can and help the team in any way I can,” Geniesse said. “Of course, the interception, that got our morale going the other way; and the touchdown (reception), it felt pretty good.”
Dawson Bardowski also had an interception for the Maroons.
Jacksoin Myszak closed the scoring with an eight-yard run in the fourth quarter.
This Menominee team restored some of that “UP Power” with the first UP championship since Ishpeming's title in 2015. Menominee's last championship was in 2007.
“That does mean something when we head back across that bridge and it’s ‘UP Power’ and we’ll go through other towns and they’ll be honking horns or happy out on the street …,” said Brandt, a Gladstone native, who spent 20 years as head coach at Stephenson. “The UP is someplace special, and it means something."
