CIF Division 4-AA and Sac-Joaquin Section Division V champion Ripon and Division 3-A finalist and SJS Division IV champion Sierra squared off Friday night at Daniel Teicheira Memorial Stadium in a pre-season scrimmage, and the rush to get a product on the field in this late, COVID-shortened season left both offenses struggling and both defenses looking like they were in mid-season form.
Each team scored once with the Timberwolves’ Kimoni Stanley dashing 30 yards early on and the Indians’ Jack Manning later scored on an 8-yard run for the only scoring of the night. Ripon’s Malik Taylor snagged an interception.
Indians coach Chris Musseman is anxious for his offense to get up to speed.
“Defense is just easier to get ready to go,” Musseman said. “It’s more of a reaction thing, where offense is more choreographed with all 11 men doing the same thing. Offense just takes longer and we struggled on offense a little bit. We have some new guys and some new pieces to put in.
“We need more time. We are like a week less in preparation for the scrimmage than we normally are and it showed for us. We just have a long way to go on offense.”
Sierra coach Chris Johnson concurred with Musseman.
“For both teams the defense was ahead of the offense,” Johnson said. “The timing just isn’t there with the details of it. You just don’t have the time — we have only been in full pads for five days – so that’s to be expected.
“And we have a lot of new bodies. We don’t have a lot of returners back either.”
The Ripon defense bottled Stanley up early on before he finally busted loose for his long scoring run.
“At first, things felt a little different because we have been out of football for so long,” Stanley said. “And with only five days of practice we had to find a rhythm to get back into it.
“We had to work together and we did our best.”
Aaron Wood played quarterback and safety for the Indians.
“It felt good tonight,” Wood said. “Our defense looked really sound but we have a few things to work on with our offense. Coming off a week and a half of practice I feel like we have been doing really well.
“If we play our role and play as a unit we can stop big players and on defense we really came together and did that.”
Ripon kicks off the abbreviated five-game Valley Oak League season Thursday hosting East Union at 7 p.m. and next Friday the Timberwolves host Weston Ranch at 7 p.m.
