Fresh off a Division 5A state championship, Calaveras came to Ripon Christian on Friday night looking to keep its undefeated streak alive.

Twenty-one unanswered fourth-quarter points stymied that Red Hawks’ plan, as the Knights came away with a 28-14 come-from-behind non-league victory.

“It did look bleak for a while,” Knights coach Phil Grams said. “They had won 13 or 14 in a row coming into this – the last time they lost was against us. Manny (Mossa) does a great job over there. He is a great head coach. They have a state title under their belt, and they really thought this was their year to come in and get one from us, and we’re still trying to figure out who we are.

“They came out and they were the more physical team for I would say two and one-half quarters. We started to get a feel for them in the third, and our defense played well all night.”

The turning point of the contest came with 5:46 left in the game following a 49-yard Ripon Christian scoring pass from Josiah Van Vliet to Stadtler Postma. The Knights missed that conversion to draw within 14-13 and decided to go for a pooch kick on the ensuing kickoff that was recovered at the Calaveras 20-yard line by Ripon Christian’s Jack Schaapman.

“We missed the extra point and we were kind of deflated a little bit, and I wanted an onside kick, but special teams coach Jordan Goslinga said ‘I got it, I got it,’ and he did the pooch instead,” Grams said. “It was a little bit safer. He made that call, we got it, went in and scored and then got another turnover and that’s all she wrote.

“Our guys believe in themselves. They are bound by brotherhood, that’s our motto.”

Schaapman saw a teammate punch the ball out and cradled it for the turnover.

“I knew it I had that pooch when I saw my buddy Elijah Lambdin punch it out,” Schaapman said. “And I had to dive on it and get the ball back.”

Jeremiah Lambdin (three receptions, 45 yards) then quickly pulled in 14-yard scoring pass from Van Vliet (10 of 15 passing, 149 yards, three touchdowns passing, one rushing) with 5:32 left in the fourth quarter and following a Mason Clark conversion run the Knights (3-0) went ahead 21-14.

“The line, QB and running back did a good job of faking it, so I was wide open,” Jeremiah Lambdin said.

The Ripon Christian defense was not done setting up the offense. Matthew Trejos recovered a Calaveras fumble with 4:53 remaining in the game, setting up a 2-yard touchdown plunge by Van Vliet for the final score of the game two minutes later.

“We knew they were going to be tough coming in,” Van Vliet said. “We saw their run defense and we knew they were going to try and stuff it every play and our game plan was to pass around it and we did just that.”

Postma (five receptions, 99 yards) got the Knights (3-0) on the board in the second period on a 10-yard pass from Van Vliet to tie the score at 7-7.

“I am just trying to do the best I can every day,” Postma said. “Gotta go out there and be a dog when the team needs it.

Postma paced the defense with 12 tackles. Ben Medhurst added 11 stops and Talen Tameling nine. Tyler Van Elderen recovered a fumble for Ripon Christian in the second quarter that set up Postma’s first score.

“It takes a lot of determination and grit on defense,” Tameling said. “Our defense had a super good game against a decent offense. We plugged those holes and got some tackles.”

Owen Shahan (13 carries, 114 yards) got the Red Hawks (2-1) of San Andreas on the board with a 10-yard touchdown run for the game’s first score and Cohen Curran (8 of 13 passing, 148 yards) gave Calaveras a 14-7 lead on a 1-yard quarterback sneak in the third quarter.

The Knights take to the road next Friday when they face Pioneer of Woodland at 7:30 p.m.