RIPON — Caleb Johnston led No. 5 Ripon on both sides of the ball Friday night, as the Indians handled visiting and 12th-seeded Ceres 39-13 in opening-round action of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division V football playoffs at Stouffer Field.

Johnston ran the ball 18 times for 100 yards with touchdown runs of 2 and 5 yards while making six tackles and knocking down a pair of passes.

“It can be tiring going both ways,” Johnston said. “You just have to work hard and push through it.”

Adam Barrera had his first start at quarterback for Ripon and did a good job of running the offense, completing six of 12 passes for 84 yards with a 31-yard touchdown pass to Nolan Young (four receptions, 51 yards) and a 19-yard touchdown run to start the night’s scoring. He totaled 42 yards on eight carries.

“It was a little nerve-racking,” Barrera said of getting his first postseason start. “I knew the coaches had me dialed in and the guys around me dialed in.

“We just got it done tonight. We came, we had a good game plan, and we executed.”

In his first game on the varsity, freshman Anden Ries made the most of his opportunity, busting loose on his first carry for a 22-yard touchdown run right up the middle, spinning his way out of tacklers along the way. He finished with four carries for 55 yards, all in the fourth quarter.

“I’m a younger kid,” Ries said. “But I just played how I normally played. I ran hard and I held the ball with two hands and I didn’t let their size bother me.

“I just played football.”

There were times that the Bulldogs (5-6) seems as if they could strike at will, with Verlis Smith pulling in scoring passes from Landyn Hudson of 20 and 34 yards, but the pass rush of the Indians (7-4) forced Hudson into six incomplete passes in a row in the second half.

“They had some athletes,” Ripon coach Chris Musseman said. “But I think we are a frustrating team to play because our front seven are pretty good and when you take the run game away from someone it makes it a little frustrating. I think that got to them a little bit and they tried to call some things that maybe they normally wouldn’t have called.

“That quarterback is a good quarterback and they have some weapons. They are pretty young, and I think next year they are going to be pretty good.”

Ethan Day (nine carries, 65 yards) added a 1-yard touchdown run for the Indians and Jack Manning rounded out the balanced Ripon attack with 56 carries on five yards.

Daniel Espinoza made five tackles for the Indians. Ries and Colin Speed added four stops apiece with Leovanni Ochoa, Day and Aiden Krupa chipping in three stops apiece. Barrera and Young each made an interception and Xzavier Clark recovered a fumble.

Ripon travels to Woodland next Friday at 7 p.m. to take on No. 4 Pioneer in a quarterfinal contest.