Taholah showed it had a fighting chance against Neah Bay in the rain on Friday night. The Red Devils, however, scored a major decision to advance into the state eight-man quarterfinals.

Neah Bay’s Rwehabura Munyagi accounted for seven of his team’s eight touchdowns and kept Taholah from mounting a comeback en route to a 58-22 victory in a Quad-District 1B playoff game at Stewart Field.

The Red Devils (9-1) will take on Tacoma Baptist next weekend in the state 1B quarterfinals. Taholah’s season comes to an end at 7-4.

“We knew they can get onto you like a wet blanket,” Taholah head coach William James said. “We knew we had to keep the intensity up and keep pushing. In the end, that’s what did it. They’re a great ball club. You have to stay on top of it, playing four quarters of hard football. That’s what is needed to beat a team like Neah Bay. Without a doubt, when things unravel and get you out of your game plan, that’s what happened.”

Taholah appeared to have the jump on Neah Bay to start. On their first drive of the game, the Chitwhins were stopped at the Red Devil 1-yard line when it was ruled that wide receiver Zach Cain was held short of the goal line. It looked like Cain got the ball over the goal line, but the sideline official marked him short.

Neah Bay’s first drive was stopped on downs at its 20-yard line, setting up Taholah’s first score — a 15-yard scramble by Dylan James — for an 8-0 lead. Then, in a span of 1:33, the Red Devils scored three touchdowns to take over the game.

Munyagi sprinted around the left end on an option keeper run and ran 87 yards for a touchdown. After a Taholah lost fumble, Munyagi hit Cameron Buzzell for a 37-yard touchdown pass play. When Taholah lost the football again on fumble, Neah Bay’s Nate Tyler returned it 75 yards for a touchdown and a 22-8 lead with 2:03 left in the first quarter.

Munyagi hit Buzzell for two more touchdowns in the second quarter — a wide-open 45-yard scoring play early in the quarter and a 13-yard scoring strike across the middle late — for a 36-14 halftime score. On Buzzell’s last touchdown catch, he tip-toed the far right corner of the end zone to confirm the score.

In between the Munyagi touchdowns, Taholah came up with its best drive of the game, a time-consuming 7 1/2-minute march that ate up 64 yards on 15 plays. Levi Jackson scored from 2 yards out on fourth down for the Chitwhins’ second touchdown of the game.

The drive was what coach James and the Chitwhins wanted to do against the Red Devils. Unfortunately, the game got away from Taholah in the second half.

“We had a game plan, the one we worked the hardest on, because we knew they are a great football team,” coach James said. “The kids wanted a shot at them. They wanted to know what they could do. We stressed all week to stay up. Champions play up and stay up. That was the game plan coming in. If we could stay in it, we felt we could be there the whole time.”

Munyagi completed his night with three more touchdowns, starting with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Cole Svec to start the second half. He added a 31-yard touchdown run, which featured him juking out two Taholah defenders, and a 25-yard scoring run to end the scoring in the fourth quarter.

Dylan James hit the longest pass play of the night, a 69-yard scoring strike to Tom Anderson early in the third quarter.

Munyagi finished with 162 yards rushing and three touchdowns, while throwing for 148 yards on 6-for-11 passing and four touchdowns. Buzzell had three receptions — all for touchdowns — for 94 yards for the Red Devils.

Taholah finished with 237 yards of offense overall, with Dylan James accounting for two touchdowns.