Eskymos Roll Past Whitehall For Playoff Win, 48-27

ESCANABA---The Escanaba Eskymos scored three early touchdowns and never looked back Saturday, beating the Whitehall Vikings, 48-27, in an MHSAA playoff game at the Escanaba Athletic Field. The Eskymos took advantage of several mistakes by the downstate team early in the game and rolled into a second round game against Alma.

The Eskymos struck on their first offensive play from scrimmage as Scout Wunder found a nice hole off the line of scrimmage and sprinted 637 yards to the house for a touchdown.

And when the Eskymos got the ball back, fullback Logan Carroll raced 64 yards for another touchdown, making it 14-0 less than four minutes into the game.

And moments later, Carroll got loose again, this time for a 58-yard run to the Whitehall five yard line. Quarterback Justin Popelka dumped one off to Tyler Willette for the short touchdown pass.

And after the extra point kick, Escanaba had a 21-0 lead, still in the first quarter.

The Vikings got on the board with a long run of their own in the second quarter, but the Eskymos answered quickly, with a 57-yard pass from Popelka to Brett Stalboerger deep into Whitehall territory. Three plays later, Wunder scored from four yards out, and even though the extra point kick was no good, Escanaba led, 27-7, at halftime.

The third quarter was more of the same, as the Eskymos took advantage of a bad special teams play to get the ball deep in Vikings territory, leading to a Popelka one-yard quarterback sneak to make it a 34-7 game.

After the Vikings scored on a short run by their quarterback, Escanaba kept up the offensive pressure with Popelka finding Willette for a 62-yard pass to the one-yard line.

Popelka's QB sneak run made it a 41-14 game.

From there, the Eskymos substituted freely and the Vikings were able to score twice, but that didn't prevent the home team from getting their eighth win (8-2). Whitehall is 6-4.

Escanaba will face the Alma Panthers downstate next Saturday afternoon at 1:00.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see game photos and video highlights.