Football has always been the cornerstone as one of Ripon’s favored sports. On Friday, Nov 1, 2024, Ripon High’s Junior Varsity football team became undefeated and were declared as the Trans Valley League champion. The JV team stood together as a team through thick and thin and ended on a positive note. Last week, they went against Hilmar for their final game and won with the final score of 27-7.

At the beginning of the game, Ripon started off with the ball and went with it, scoring a touchdown in the first quarter. The Ripon defense kept the Hilmar offense contained the whole night, only letting them score once during the second quarter.

Sophomore Kael Rangel stated “Our defense was just on another level, our whole D line just couldn’t be stopped and we just had a great game.” Then, the offense scored not once but twice leading up to the half time.

During the second half of the game both teams were neck and neck with no one scoring in the third quarter. Finally, during the 4th quarter of the game, Ripon ended up scoring a touchdown and tried going for a two-point conversion, but unfortunately missed the two-point conversion. On the bright side, they still won the game despite that. With it being the last game of the season Sophomore Andrew Shaw expressed it by saying “I feel really good, I feel like our team had a great season and I feel like we played together and we accomplished everything we wanted to accomplish.”
Throughout the season though, there have been ups and downs, with problems coming in on all sides but aside from the struggle that didn’t stop Ripon High’s JV team. Congratulations to the JV team and good luck next season!