A week ago, Totino-Grace senior Marquel Keten rushed for six touchdowns. The Eagles didn’t need quite that 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 on the way to a 24-0 victory in the Class 4A state quarterfinals at Blaine High School. “We knew tonight was going to be a hard game,” said Keten, who piled up 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 our best on both sides of the ball and took care of business.” The Eagles (11-0) advance to play Orono, which beat Hermantown 49-21, in the semifinals at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 15 at U.S. 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 Aug. 29. “Our defense put us in really good spots tonight,” Totino-Grace coach Jay Anderson said. “Then, in the second half, guys like (senior Syl) Berg, (senior Calvin) McIntosh and (senior) Noah Januschka did a nice job running the ball to take some of the load off Marquel, which really helped.” Indeed, it was Berg’s 47-yard run in the second quarter that set up a 7-yard touchdown from Keten to put the Eagles on top 7-0 at halftime. But Keten said his team was frustrated by penalties and a fumble that kept it from getting more. “I’m not going to lie, after the first half, nobody was too happy,” he said. “Our senior quarterback J.P. (Jake Person) talked to us about what we needed to do. Everybody was locked in, and we started to capitalize.” That started on the opening drive of the third quarter when Keten scored on a 36-yard run. Then a 35-yard scoring scamper by McIntosh extended the lead to 21-0. The last touchdown was set up when the Pioneers fumbled the ball away, continuing a game-long pattern which saw Hill-Murray moving the ball successfully but unable to finish drives. The Pioneers had a chance to jump on top early when junior Caden Harrington returned the game’s opening kickoff to the Totino-Grace 44-yard line. But the drive ended when the Eagles picked off a pass at their own 28. Hill-Murray had advanced as far as the Totino-Grace 36 before the fumble that set up McIntosh’s touchdown, and the Pioneers were again in Eagles’ territory when senior Adriel Bestman came up with a fumble recovery that led to a 26-yard field goal 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 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 Thursday. “They did a really good job rushing the passer and taking away the throwing game, which we’ve had a ton of success with all year. Totino-Grace is a good football team, and they really got after us up front.” As a result, the Eagles are moving on to the state semifinals. “That will be another hard game,” Keten said. “We know we really have to practice well this week and be ready for whatever comes. Nothing will be easy this time of year.” Related Articles High School Sports | High school volleyball: New Life Academy overcomes five match points but can’t get all the way back High School Sports | High school volleyball: Hawley edges St. Croix Lutheran in five games to advance in Class 2A High School Sports | Wisconsin High School Football: Friday’s section championship predictions High School Sports | High School Football: Friday’s state quarterfinal predictions High School Sports | State volleyball: Champlin Park edges East Ridge in Class 4A semifinal thriller