It’s late August, temperatures are starting to cool down and school is back in session. With that comes the return of high school football, and no other town does it better than Ripon. The first day of high school football for Ripon was everything you could ask for. The freshmen football team had defeated Linden with a score of 42-6 as did the JV football team beating Linden with a score of 48-13. Then with the Friday night lights shining on Ripon, the Ripon varsity football team played their hearts out but unfortunately lost by a score of 44-47. However, the team never backed down and kept fighting till the end.
This game was more important to the Varsity football team and cheerleaders than just any regular game as it was the class of 2025’s Senior Night. The fans and cheerleaders knew this as they brought the energy the entire night. The Varsity team also knew this as they played their hearts out the entire night. Even though this is one of the many last games, the seniors are going out with a bang. Senior Eric Guevara stated, “I’m really looking forward to making memories with a lot of the guys that I grew up with.” At the start of the game, there were minor problems with the team’s performance. The defense started strong as they kept Linden’s offense to one score through the first few drives and were able to get a safety. However, the offense came out soft with several unanswered drives in the first quarter. Though with one big play, the offense became electric and was able to score when needed.
Coming out of half time the defense was playing great, and the offense was starting to come up with results. However, Linden had not slowed down either as their offensive attack exposed the RHS defense. Linden’s dual-threat QB was able to make good scrambles against the RHS defensive line and secondary. The RHS offense was still able to distance themselves from Linden because they were up 37-23 by the end of the third quarter.
The team began to stutter through the fourth quarter as Linden’s offense scored, and a fumble by the RHS offense allowed for another Linden touchdown. RHS had one last shot to beat Linden with less than three minutes to go in a tied game, but the offense was unable to have a game-saving touchdown, which allowed Linden the chance to get a game-winning field goal winning the game 47-44.
With the unfortunate loss against Linden, Ripon High still carries onward looking towards the future making changes through the next week, Junior JJ Brawley had this to say about the upcoming game “Although we did struggle in certain areas on defense, those were all minor tweaks that we can make in the film room.” This week they play against Enochs, the following game will be away make sure to come out and support if you can. The game will be located at Johansen High School up in Modesto. Good luck to our Ripon Indians this Football season!
