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New-look offense helps give RC edge
RFC
GARY JENSEN/GreatShots.SmugMug.com Ripon Christian's Trey Fasani (5) looks to throw over Mariposa's Landon Robinson (17) and Tyler Crockett (53).

SCORING SUMMARY

Mariposa  7 0 0 0 – 7

Ripon Christian 0 7 7 0 – 14

 

First quarter

M – Ayden Lopes 72 pass from Wyatt Green (Landon Robinson kick), 2:15

 

Second quarter

RC – Micah De Jong 7 run (Grant Sonke kick), 4:49

 

Third quarter

RC – Sonke 18 run (Sonke kick), 34.9

Most teams by Week 8 have are fine-tuning their offense.

Not Ripon Christian.

The Knights installed a new offense this week that employed a balanced attack with lots of misdirection to keep visiting Mariposa off balance as Ripon Christian came from behind Friday night to defeat the Grizzlies 14-7 in Southern League action.

Not only did the Knights (2-2 SL, 5-3 overall) put in a new offense this week, they were without head coach Phil Grams who had been suspended for this week’s game.

“Hats off to coach (Randy) Fasani,” Grams said. “He had to step up. He has been a head coach before and has called offense before but this was an offense he hadn’t called before in the fly offense, but he earned his fly belt tonight.”

The Ripon Christian defense had given up more than 28 points per game coming into Mariposa (3-2, 4-4).

“Our defense had a great game plan that held them to seven points,” Grams said. “People have been scoring against us all year so our defense was the story tonight and really stepped up big-time.

“Hats off to the senior-led offensive line. Since I wasn’t here tonight I told them they would have to make the adjustments without me and they studied really hard and they made their adjustments on their own.”

Trey Fasani directed the new-look offense for the Knights, completing 10 of 22 passes for 100 yards while picking up 82 yards on 11 carries. His favorite target was Griffin Debreau with three catches for 62 yards.

“It was a hard-fought game,” Trey Fasani said. “We pulled it out. We were able to stop them on defense and it was a great game overall.”

Micah De Jong (10 carries, 5 yards) tied the game for Ripon Christian at 7-7 midway through the second quarter with a 7-yard touchdown run. In a third quarter owned by the Knights – Ripon Christian had the ball for all but 90 seconds in the period – Grant Sonke (11 carries, 65 yards) gave Ripon Christian the lead for good at 14-7 on a 18-yard touchdown run.

“We just installed a new offense this week,” Sonke said. “It was a huge change.”

Brady Grondz balanced out the Knights’ punishing ground game with 12 carries for 68 yards.

The Ripon Christian defense held Mariposa to just 24 rushing yards and was led to De Jong with eight tackles followed by Zach Brouer with six stops and Brady Grondz with four.

Wyatt Green (11 of 19 passing, 173 yards) gave the Grizzlies a first-quarter lead with a 72-yard touchdown pass to Ayden Lopes.