The Grand County High Red Devils cruised to a convincing victory last Friday night, Oct. 23 in Moab, defeating the Beaver Beavers in a play-in game, 41-14.

If fans and players had a sense of déjà vu looking at the final scoreboard, it was because the Red Devils had beaten Gunnison by the same score the week before to end their regular season.

With the play-in victory over Beaver, the No. 4 seeded Red Devils (now 6-4 overall) earned a berth in the 2A quarterfinals, where they’ll face the No. 1 seeded Enterprise Wolves at Enterprise on Halloween afternoon. That game is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.

“The best football we’ve played in the last two years has been in the last two weeks,” said GHCS coach Dennis Wells, praising the defense in particular for their mental toughness and their ability to force several turnovers.

The game stayed close at first, with Grand holding a slight 7-6 edge over Beaver after one quarter. But the Red Devils broke the game open by scoring four touchdowns in the second quarter to make it 34-6 at halftime.

Beaver punted after its opening possession of the third quarter, and on Grand’s very next play from scrimmage, running back Dallen Dalton broke loose for a 63-yard touchdown run to make it 41-6 for the Red Devils.

With the lead up to 35 points, the so-called “mercy rule” was invoked, and the clock essentially ran without stopping for most of the rest of the second half.

Grand quarterback Billy Keddington rushed 11 times for 94 yards and scored three touchdowns on the ground. Keddington also completed 6 of 12 passes for 95 yards and one score, a 4-yard TD pass to Erik Wermuth in the second quarter. Wermuth finished with 69 yards receiving on four catches, and also was 6-for-7 in extra point kick attempts.

Dalton rushed 10 times for 101 yards and one TD, and only had to punt the ball twice.

“Our special teams did a great job,” said Wells. “Our kickoff coverage was awesome.”

A bright spot for the Beavers was the play of running back Parker Fails, who scored both of Beaver’s touchdowns, including a 62-yard scramble up the middle in the first quarter.

A couple of minutes later, Beaver scooped up what appeared to be a batted-down pitch and headed for the end zone, only to have the play called back by the officials, who ruled it an incomplete forward pass.

Right after the start of the second quarter, the momentum shifted in the Red Devils’ favor, as Grand scored four successive touchdowns by capitalizing on three Beaver turnovers. Beto Nelson recovered a fumble and Dalton and Trevor Robertson each picked off Beaver passes during the rally. Robertson ran his interception into the end zone from 31 yards out to put the Red Devils up 34-6 with 2:38 left before halftime.

Beaver didn’t score again until the final minutes of the game, when Fails made a 14-yard touchdown run, then caught the ensuing two-point conversion pass from quarterback Ty Yardley. Beaver recovered an onside kick and was attempting to advance up the field again when senior lineman Kyson Smith went down with an injury with a minute left in the game. Smith was loaded into an ambulance and taken to Allen Memorial Hospital as a precaution.

After a delay of more than 20 minutes, play resumed, and Robertson snagged another interception to end the Beavers’ last-ditch effort to score one more time before the game ended.

The 6-4 Red Devils, the No. 4 seed in the 2A East, will travel to play at the 2A West’s No. 1 seeded Enterprise Wolves (6-3 overall) in the 2A quarterfinals next Saturday afternoon, Oct. 31, at 1 p.m.