LIVINGSTON — When Ripon senior defensive tackle Colin Speed saw the football rolling on the ground, he knew that he had to take a chance.

And rather than falling on it, Speed reached down to pick it up and headed straight for the end zone, falling short in his pursuit of a touchdown but solidifying Ripon’s 20-7 road win over Livingston Friday night to keep the Indians unbeaten in the Trans Valley league.

“I was just thinking touchdown. I kept repeating ‘touchdown, touchdown’ in my head the entire time,” Speed said. “I would never think that I was going to be able to grab the ball, but I saw it and somebody dove for it and I saw it come out and I knew that I had to take the chance.

“We had to stop them from scoring right there. We had a poor performance going into halftime and we came out ready to hit.”

Ripon (4-0 TVL, 6-2 overall) struck first in the TVL contest at the end of the first quarter when Jack Manning broke left for paydirt from 8-yards out, giving the Indians an early lead that would grow just over two minutes into the second quarter when Dylan DeGraff connected with Ethan Day for a 37-yard touchdown strike.

But Livingston (1-2, 4-3), which came into Friday’s contest having narrowly lost to Hilmar in addition to shutting out Hughson, wasn’t ready to give up.

On the ensuing possession, the Wolves put together a seven-play, 65-yard drive that was capped off by a Jordan Alvarez touchdown, putting Livingston within striking distance down 12-7 at halftime.

After a scoreless third quarter, Ripon would extend its lead with 8:18 left to play in the contest when Adam Barrera connected with Nolan Young on an 11-yard touchdown strike that proved to be the game’s last points.

Having the ability to go onto the road heading into a bye week and pick up a win that gives Ripon a chance to win the TVL was something that head coach Chris Mussemaan said showed that his team was willing to rise to the occasion.

“This was a must-win for us. If we want to get into the postseason and have a chance at winning the TVL, we had to win tonight,” Musseman said. “That’s a good football team. That’s a talented football team over there.”

Given that Livingston was able to post more than 40 points against two of previous four opponents meant that Ripon’s strength — its defense — would have to show up in order to ensure that the Indians had a chance to walk away with the victory.

Ripon held Livingston quarterback Rocklin Baptista to only 90 yards in the air on 18 passing attempts, completing only six of them.

Livingston running back Carlos Baez racked up 56 yards on 10 carries but was unable to break past the second level for the entirety of the contest.

“We had one drive where we kind of got out of sorts, but our defense did an unbelievable job against a very powerful offense — a high-scoring offense all year,” Musseman said. “That has been the strength of our team.

“Going into this year we knew that we were going to win games with our defense, and as long as they keep playing that way, we’re going to be pretty good.”