Win or go home.
That is the mantra of playoff teams everywhere, but for Ripon on Friday night, it is win and stay home.
After a bye in the first week of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division V playoffs, the No. 2 Indians host 10th-seeded Foothill of Sacramento on Friday, and a win will give the Indians a second home game.
But that win will be no easy task. The Mustangs (8-3), who finished third in the Pioneer Valley League behind powerhouses Center of Antelope and Colfax, are riding a four-game win streak into Stouffer Field capped with a 47-30 road thumping of No. 7 Liberty Ranch of Galt last Friday.
In the four-game spurt, Foothill outscored the opposition 183-78.
“They are a very talented football team,” Ripon coach Chris Musseman said. “They are loaded. For them to have gotten third, their league must be really strong.”
Dae’vonnie Williams was a force for the Mustangs against Hawks, racking up 290 yards on 23 carries with five touchdowns. If those totals were not impressive enough, he churned out 161 yards with three touchdowns by halftime.
“They have dudes, for sure,” Musseman said. “They are big and he (Williams) is really good. I don’t know if they had a game plan for him, and the way he was playing I don’t know if you could. He was going off and I would have kept giving him the ball all night long.”
Normally, Williams and quarterback Joel Powell split the rushing duties, but Friday night belonged to the former. Powell scored a touchdown and had 86 yards combined rushing and passing.
“They have three or four game breakers,” Musseman said. “It’s hard for us to emulate them, but we are doing OK.
“We are fairly healthy, and this time of the year no one is totally healthy.”
Ripon (9-1) split the Trans-Valley League championship with Escalon and Hilmar, but because of the 13-point tiebreaker the Indians earned the No. 1 TVL seed that forced them to move up to the tougher Division V bracket while the others stayed in Division VI.
Ripon quarterback Nico Ilardi missed three games due to injury but has totals worthy of a complete campaign: 1,063 yards passing with 14 touchdowns against just two interceptions.
Dorian Dougherty (426 receiving yards, six touchdowns) leads a balanced receiving corps including Brandon Rainer (324 yards, three touchdowns), Danny Hernandez (230 yards, three touchdowns) and Troy Brogan (219 yards, five touchdowns).
Hernandez leads the Ripon ground game with 884 yards and has 1612 all-purpose yards. Dougherty has 595 all-purpose yards, Rainer 557 and Wiebe 429.
Mason Knight paced the Knights defense with 52 tackles followed by Hernandez with 48,
Simon Defreitas 43, Wiebe 38, Caleb Delgado 35, Nathan Valdez and Brogan 31 each and 30 apiece for Rainer and Wood. 

AT A GLANCE
WHO: Foothill (8-3) vs. Ripon (9-1)
WHAT: Sac-Joaquin Section Division V quarterfinal
WHEN: Friday, 7 p.m. kickoff
WHERE: Stouffer Field, Ripon High
ADMISSION: $12 adults, $8 seniors (65-above)/military, $5 students (K-12), children 5-under free