Senior standout Matthew Gaines and the rest of the Ripon football team knew that they were being challenged by head coach Cole Williams, who set up a gauntlet of a non-conference schedule that includes four large schools that all made postseason appearances a year ago.

“We know coach wanted to help get us ready for what we believe is the best small-school conference in the state in the TVL (Trans Valley League),” Gaines said. “It was up to us to put in the work in the offseason to get ready and prove to everybody that no matter the size of the school, we can compete.”

Gaines and company proved they could not only compete, but come out victorious against the big boys after his interception sealed a hard-fought and complete performance over North Coast Section Division II Livermore 27-24 in front of a capacity crowd at Wes Stouffer Field.

“What a game against a really, really good team,” Williams said. “We played well in all three phases tonight, and luckily were able to get out to a lead and hang on there late. I cannot say enough about the way our guys have risen to the challenge we’ve laid out for them here early on in the season.”

Ripon (1-0) stifled the Cowboys (0-1) early on, holding them to just six total plays and 7 total yards of offense in the first quarter. Huge plays by Xabriel Reyes and Jude Viss helped get the Ripon defense off the field so its senior signal caller Andrew Shaw could get to work. Shaw led a balanced attack that racked 146 yards on the ground in the game. Gaines (24 yards) and Ace Dougherty (79 yards) did much of the heavy lifting early on against Livermore, getting chunk yardage setting up Shaw to score twice with his legs in the first quarter to make it 14-0 going into the first intermission.

“Our line did such a good job tonight,” Shaw said. “They had some big guys up front, and the difference in the game was how we moved their guys around early to get out to that lead.”

Livermore would answer with points early in the second quarter after a big pass play from Rhett Bystrom to Chad Boskie set up the Cowboys at the three yard line. Three plays, later fullback Alex Shepard scored from 1-yard out to make it 14-7.

After a stalled Ripon drive, its defense would come up with the first real big play of the game as Jacoby Salinas intercepted a Maximus Beck pass and returned it 70 yards to the Livermore 3-yard line. On the very next play, Shaw plunged in for his third rushing touchdown of the game to make it 21-7.

“Each time they got a little bit of momentum on their side, our defense made a play to get it right back for us,” Williams said. “It got a little bend-but-don’t-break late, but we made just enough plays to get it done.”

The Cowboys again cut it to a one score game late in the second quarter when Caden Romero scored from a yard out to make it 21-14. Shaw (129 yards passing) would show off his arm on the ensuing drive, completing three big passes to get his team into scoring position before senior kicker Santiago Hernandez made his first of two field goals on the night from 36 yards out to give Ripon a 24-14 lead at the break.

“I was just happy to be able to go out there and put points on the board for my team,” Hernandez said. “It means a lot that coach counts on me in those spots when points are so important.”

Livermore adjustments at halftime made things much more difficult on Ripon. Shaw and his duo of backs struggled to move the ball in the third quarter, while Livermore backup quarterback Beck (103 yards passing) found his grove converting on a field goal drive to make it 24-17 going into the fourth quarter.

Like it did all night long, Williams’ squad responded, going on a 14-play drive chewing up over eight minutes of game clock that ended in yet another Hernandez field goal this time from 25-yards out to again push the lead to two scores.

“I’m known around here for being aggressive on fourth down,” Williams said. “But its so nice to have a weapon like that that we can go to when we need points. Santiago is probably the difference in the game tonight, and the kid deserves this. He works his tail off, improving his craft day in and day out.”

Beck and the Cowboys would show the grit that earned them a DII playoff berth a season ago as the sophomore found Boskie from 23 yards out to make it 27-24 with 5:57 to go.

The Ripon offense ground down some clock on the ensuing drive before ultimately stalling, punting the ball back to Livermore with 2:44 left in the game.

Beck picked up a few chunk plays through the air before the game sealing interception from Gaines with just 1:02 left helped the hosts move to 1-0 picking up a win that will be pivotal later in the season when postseason calculations are made.

“That unit deserved for this game to end that way,” Williams said. “We thought we were on the wrong end of a call just a few plays earlier and they could have folded and they just didn’t.”

Ripon will ride Friday nights’ wave into week 2 where they’ll hit the road and head to Auburn to take on the Hillmen of Placer.

“We knew we could compete with anybody now everyone else does too,” Shaw said. “We’ll get back to work on Monday and keep this thing going.”