Ripon racked up over 400 yards of total offense including 324 on the ground en route to its second victory over a larger school in three weeks, running away from Pitman 49-10 Friday night at Wes Stouffer field.

“Just a really complete performance from our guys,” Ripon head coach Cole Williams said. “We made a couple mistakes out there that we will work to correct, but we challenged this team to come out here and move them around, and I think we did that from the opening whistle.”

On what would be a huge offensive night for Ripon (2-1), Williams’ squad got on the board on the defensive side of the ball to open the scoring against what was an undefeated Pitman (2-1) team coming into the game. A fumbled quarterback handoff exchange was picked up by Ripon senior linebacker Xabriel Reyes, who took it 45 yards to the house in the second minute of the contest.

“My eyes lit up when I saw the ball on the ground,” Reyes said. “There was some green grass in front of me, so I knew once I had it I was taking it to the house.”

The fumble recovery would be the first of three turnovers Ripon forced.

“We knew we were going to make some plays on defense to win tonight,” Williams said. “We thought we schemed up a pretty good game plan but at the end of the day it’s about big moments like that one that got us on the board.”

It looked like fans in attendance might be in for a shootout between Ripon and Pitman after the Pride answered right back going 65 yards in two plays capped by a 38-yard touchdown run by senior running back Jaiden Brown to make it 7-7 less than two minutes in.

“We have to clean up the big plays,” Reyes said. “We were feeling a little down as a defense after they got back at us like that but we were able to lock in the rest of the game and hold them.”

Locked in was an appropriate way for Reyes to describe his unit’s performance after the Ripon defense allowed just 100 yards of total offense to the pride for the rest of the game. Tackles for loss by Jude Viss along with interceptions by Josiah Perez and Gavin Duran ended Pitman drives abruptly, frustrating Pride signal caller Brayden Esparza (9 for 20, 94 yards passing).

On the other side of the ball, Ripon’s offensive line started opening up big holes for Ace Dougherty (56 yards rushing), Kael Rangel (141 yards rushing), and Matthew Gaines (42 yards rushing).

After going into the break up 21-7, it was three touchdowns in three minutes of game time from Rangel that would ultimately seal the fate of the visiting Pride. Rangel capped a huge night from 38-yards out for this third score to make it 42-7 and put the game on a running clock with 2:13 left in the third quarter.

“Those were some big holes we were running through tonight,” Rangel said. “The coaches were drawing up some great calls and credit to our offensive line they couldn’t have played better making things easier on us.”

Lost in the 2-1 start is the fact that Ripon has now played two games without its senior standout quarterback Andrew Shaw. Shaw suffered an oblique injury that has kept him sidelined since the season opening victory over Livermore.

Junior Jacoby Salinas has slid in from his normal wide receiver position leading Ripon’s offensive attack on the ground and through the air. Salinas ran for 37 yards Friday night, while going 6-of-8 passing for 74 yards, picking up key third down conversions to tight end Viss (3 catches, 37 yards).

“It’s definitely been an adjustment these past few weeks,” Salinas said. “It has always been next-man-up mentality out here. Andrew is a great player. I just want to do the best I can to keep us on the right track until we can get him back.”

With or without Shaw, Ripon will face it’s fourth larger school test in as many weeks next week as they head to Tracy to take on a Bulldogs team that throttled Lathrop 56-0 Friday night to move to 3-0.

“Next week is another test. We just need to keep executing and doing our jobs,” Williams said. “This team has come together and gelled so quickly which will help us against a really good football team.”

Kickoff will take place at 7:15 p.m. Friday night at Wayne Schneider Stadium.