People are starting to sit up and take notice of the Noxon Red Devils.

Coach Bart Haflich’s Red Devil football team improved to 4-2 overall and 2-1 in conference play Saturday with a 59-31 road win over the Elijah Byrd-led Gardiner Bruins Saturday, and were rewarded for their efforts by earning enough votes to enter the latest 406mtsports.com power poll at No. 10 in the Montana 6-Man rankings.

Trying to lock up one of the Western Conference’s four State playoff spots, the Devils will host 1-6 Valley Christian Friday night in the West End. The Eagles will enter the fray with a 1-2 record in conference play.

Besides being Noxon’s senior night, Friday’s game gives the Devils a chance to solidify their post-season position as the regular season winds towards its inevitable conclusion the week after next. The Devils will complete regular season play visiting White Sulphur Springs, which is sitting at 3-0 in league play and 5-2 overall Oct. 26.

If the Devils win this week, the game at White Sulphur will likely be for second place in the conference and the No. 2 seed out of the west into the rapidly approaching playoffs. Of course, a lot of possibilities will hinge on how Hot Springs (3-0, 7-0) fares in their game with White Sulphur this Friday in Hot Springs.

Hot Springs is currently ranked No. 4 in the state and White Sulphur is No. 8.

“We can only control what happens in the games we play,” Haflich said. “We cannot afford to overlook Valley, we really need this one.”

The Devils already have been playing with a sense of urgency as the road win over Gardiner illustrates.

Haflich knew going in to Gardiner that the key would be to limit the Bruin’s versatile Elijah Byrd, who has been running amok for Gardiner on western Montana 6-Man fields all fall long.

Byrd was still a factor, rushing and receiving for over 200 yards of total offense and scoring three touchdowns, but he had to work very hard for it. Byrd rushed for 92 yards on 23 carries and caught six passes for 114 more yards, but was a pretty beat-up Bruin by the time the game ended.

“We managed to bottle him up pretty well,” Haflich said. “He still made some plays but for the most part we kept him in check. The kids stepped up, attacked their blockers and made the plays we needed to.”

On the offensive side of things, the Devils employed a punishing running attack keyed by Rylan Weltz and Josh Baldwin. Weltz scored four touchdowns on runs of one, 18, 38 and 24 yards, while Baldwin found paydirt twice on jaunts of 40 and 60 yards.

Jared Webley scored Noxon’s other touchdown on a 45-yard kickoff return.

Also playing quarterback in Gardiner last week, Derreck Christensen successfully converted five two-point conversion kicks. Webley scored Noxon’s final point on a conversion pass from Weltz.

Favian Hudson scored Gardiner’s other touchdown