A week ago, Totino-Grace senior Marquel Keten rushed for six touchdowns.

The Eagles didn’t need much from their standout running back Thursday night. Not with their defense keeping Hill-Murray at bay.

Keten still rushed for a pair of scores, but Totino-Grace also forced four Pioneer turnovers en route to a 24-0 victory in the Class 4A state quarterfinals at Blaine High School.

“We knew tonight was going to be a tough game,” said Keten, who had 190 yards to go along with his six touchdowns in a 47-6 win over St. Anthony in the Class 4A, Section 4 title game last week. . “But we came out here, did the best we could on both sides of the ball and took care of everything.”

The Eagles (11-0) advance to play in the semifinals at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 15 at US Bank Stadium. The Pioneers finished their season 9-2 overall, losing for the first time since a 51-0 season-opening loss to Becker on August 29.

“Our defense put us in some really good spots tonight,” Totino-Grace coach Jay Anderson said. “Then in the second half, guys like (Syl) Berg, Calvin McIntosh and Noah Januschka did a good job running the ball to take some of the load off of Marquel, which really helped.”

In fact, it was Berg’s 47-yard run in the second quarter that set up a 7-yard touchdown run by Keten to put the Eagles up 7-0 at halftime. But Keten said his team was frustrated by penalties and a fumble that prevented it from getting more.

“I’m not going to lie, after the first half nobody was very happy,” he said. “Our senior quarterback, JP (Jake Person), talked to us about what we needed to do. “Everyone was locked in and we started to take advantage.”

That started on the first drive of the third quarter when Keten scored on a 36-yard run. Then, a 35-yard scoring run by McIntosh extended the lead to 21-0.

The final touchdown was set up when the Pioneers fumbled, continuing a game-long pattern in which Hill-Murray successfully moved the ball but was unable to finish drives.

The Pioneers had a chance to take the lead early when junior Caden Harrington returned the opening kick of the game to the Totino-Grace 44-yard line. But the drive ended when the Eagles intercepted a pass at their own 28-yard line.

Hill-Murray had advanced to the Totino-Grace 36 before the fumble that set up McIntosh’s touchdown, and the Pioneers were back in Eagles territory when senior Adriel Bestman recovered a fumble that led to a 26-yard field goal. yards. by senior Jimmy McNeil to close out the scoring with 6:37 remaining.

“We haven’t seen team speed like that on defense since we played Becker in the first game of the season,” said Hill-Murray coach Robert Reeves, whose team had turned the ball over just twice all season. entering play on Thursday.

“They did a really good job of rushing the passer and taking away our shooting game, which is something we’ve had a lot of success with all year. “Totino-Grace is a good football team and they really got after us from the beginning.”

As a result, the Eagles will advance to the state semifinals.

“That’s going to be another tough game,” Keten said. “We know we really have to practice well this week and be prepared for whatever comes. “Nothing will be easy this time of year.”