Ripon Christian was shut out in the second halves of its first two Southern League games — a closer-than-it-needed-to-be 21-20 win over Orestimba followed by a 15-14 heartbreaker at Le Grand.

Last Friday, the Knights rallied to score the final 20 points and knock off one-win Waterford, 28-27.

Three league games, three one-point margins.

“Frustrating,” quarterback Billy Marr said.

Frustrating because he and the rest of the Knights believe they are better than how they’ve performed the last three weeks. The silver lining here is that Ripon Christian won’t be green in pressure situations moving forward.

Good thing, because the Knights could be in for another dogfight this Friday at Gustine in a showdown of 5-1 teams looking to stay in the hunt for the SL title.

“We have to jump on them in the first quarter,” Marr said. “It’s nice to have a little bit of a cushion but we also have to keep that cushion, which we didn’t do against Orestimba and Le Grand and that really hurt us. As a team we need to be able to play an entire football game without letting off the gas.”

Ripon Christian gained valuable experience in Week 2 when it escaped Linden with a 27-23 victory. The Lions charged out to a 14-0 lead but were outscored 20-9 in the second half. Brian Sytsma scored the winning 4-yard touchdown on fourth-and-goal with 42 seconds remaining and later intercepted a Hail Mary pass to seal it. Linden provided RC a good barometer having lost to other SL teams, Orestimba and Gustine, in the previous weeks. The win also set the tone for the rest of the season.

 “The Linden game was proof that we were capable of pulling out the tight ones, something Ripon Christian wasn’t able to do in the past,” Marr said. “The team that we have this year has a lot of fighters.

“We proved mainly to ourselves that we can play that type of football. It gave us confidence going into league play. Against Waterford we knew we could do it because we did it before.”

Ripon Christian trailed 27-8 midway through the third quarter against upset-minded Waterford. Things looked bleak for the Knights, who had their top offensive weapon, Brian Sytsma, already sidelined with an ankle injury.

Ripon Christian dominated the final quarter and a half. Marr got into a rhythm with 6-foot-2 receiver Ethan McMurray (six catches, 131 yards), who had his best game of the season. Derek Dotinga and Marr each punched in rushing touchdowns in the second-half surge. Rugged fullback Kevin Kramer (16 rushes, 81 yards, TD) stepped in as the bell-cow back, scoring the tying touchdown with 53 seconds left and booting the go-ahead extra point. And the defense, led by Seth Silveira’s seven tackles, completely took over.

“We came out real flat to start the game,” two-way lineman Will Kamps said. “At halftime we talked about bringing more of a nastiness and playing with a little more attitude on defense. It really transpired in the second half and we are going to carry that high into the Gustine game.”

Defense has redefined Ripon Christian, which had basked in glory of its offense in recent seasons. Andrew Brown is no longer around to bust big gains in the open field. He graduated last spring as the Sac-Joaquin Section’s all-time king of touchdowns.

“Growing up I used to watch a lot of Ripon Christian games and when they won it was because of offense,” Kamps said. “But when they lost it was because of defense. This year have a lot of returning players on defense so the potential was there for us to be good. It’s a lot of fun to see the progression we’ve made.”

Ripon Christian has changed along with the rest of the Southern League. One-sided blowouts and back-and-forth shootouts appear to be a thing of the past. And when was the last time the SL has had this much parity? Traditional powers Mariposa and Le Grand, both 3-0, have long reigned, and more recently RC has joined the party. But in 2014 there are six teams with overall records that are .500 or better, and every week each of them feels it has a legitimate chance of winning no matter who is on the other sideline.

It all adds up to more competitive games.

No one knows that better than Ripon Christian.

“We don’t have the big-play ability that we had last year or in years previous, so we have to fight through games and grind,” Marr said. “We have to make more stops and defensive stands on defense, and the offense is more about getting the first downs and (prolonging) drives.

“It would be nice to put up larger wins but the Southern League is tough this year … and it’s going to be that way the rest of the year. We have had to learn to adapt and change our playing style.”