With a disappointing loss to open their season, the RHS varsity football team needed to get a win. After seeing the freshman and JV team start their season 2-0, varsity knew they needed to get a win. After a tough fought battle, the team was able to sneak out a narrow victory against Enochs with a score of 10-7. This gave the RHS football team their first victory in almost a year.
The RHS defense had a rough night against Linden on Aug 23. 2024 allowing 47 points. The defense had to do much better if they were to win against Enochs. The defense had started off a little slow, allowing a touchdown on their first drive. However, after that first drive the defense would play perfect. The RHS defense didn’t allow a single score after that, they stopped the enoch’s run game completely, got much pressure upon the QB, and rarely allowed the Enochs offense on RHS territory.
However, the RHS offense that had 44 points against Linden on August 23, 2024, struggled mightily against Enochs. The offense had several drives where they went three and out, had an inability to stop the Enochs defensive line, and when they were able to get a sustainable drive together they couldn’t finish it out.
During the fourth quarter the RHS defense began to get tired, and Enoch’s offense began to gain momentum. However , the RHS defense held strong to make sure the offense could win them the game. Sure enough, the offense was able to mount a 4th quarter rushing touchdown to tie the game at 7-7. With another stop by the RHS defense, the RHS offense got a chance to break this tie with less than three minutes to go in the fourth quarter. They were unable to come out with a touchdown, but were able to get a field goal to break the tie, 10-7. Just when it seemed Ripon was going to come out with the win, the Enoch’s offense’s passing game began to click on their final drive. With ten seconds left on the clock and not close enough to the goaline, Enoch’s sent out the field goal unit to send the game into overtime. The kick though would be far short of the field goal post, allowing RHS to win their first game of the season, 10-7.
“It was nerve racking at first,” senior kicker Ricky Langenfeld states about his game winning field goal, “but then I went up to Muss [head coach Christopher Musseman] and I knew I could hit this.” When asked about how he felt when on the field Langenfield states “Out on the field it was so surreal just knowing the games on my hands,” Langenfeld continues. “When I saw it go in I was so happy.”
This victory ended a year long losing streak for RHS, giving Ripon something to celebrate about. The varsity team must do better as the season goes on though to get some consistency. If they can get the defense we saw against Enoch’s, and the offense we saw against Linden, this team can be a true threat.
