LATHROP — Ripon showed what it can do against a team of athletes its own size Friday at Lathrop’s Bennie Gatto Field.

Running behind a sturdy and battle-hardened offensive line, Ryan Fugit gashed the Spartans for 176 yards and three touchdowns in Ripon’s much-needed 45-25 victory. The Indians (1-2) were coming off brutal losses to Sierra and Patterson, two larger-sized schools with massive linemen and impressive athletes.

Fugit said the Indians, who start 15 juniors, have gotten better from the defeats.

“It taught us to be more physical, and I have to give (credit) to our offensive line for the awesome holes they created for us,” Fugit said. “Today we saw more of what we’re going to see in (the Trans-Valley) league, I think, so it was good to have those games that really pushed us to work harder in practice and play more physical.”

It was more like the Ripon teams of the past three years that went 30-5 with a TVL title in 2012 and successive postseason berth. The Indians scored on their first four possessions and led 24-6 after Nick Price (10 of 18, 123 yards, 2 TDs) delivered a 10-yard scoring strike to Trent Murphy in the back of the end zone with 8:51 left in the second quarter.

Problem: This isn’t the Lathrop of old that Ripon has beaten up on in the past.

The Spartans (1-2) had a 13-play drive stall out in the red zone late in the quarter, but the defense held Ripon to a three-and-out series to give the offense one last shot to get back in the game.

Lathrop again penetrated the red zone, and quarterback Diego Chavez had two straight passes dropped in the end zone. His third shot was caught by his big target of the night, Reggie Carter Jr., who reeled it in on a slant route for a 14-yard touchdown with 32 seconds remaining. The conversion run failed, but it was Lathrop that had the momentum going into halftime down 24-12.

Carter put his breakaway ability on display again on Lathrop’s opening drive of the second half. On third-and-10, he took a short screen pass from Chavez up the middle and turned it into a 70-yard score as Ripon’s lead dwindled to 24-19.

Carter ended up with 155 yards and three touchdowns on seven receptions. Chavez was 13 of 31 with 244 yards, four TD tosses and an interception. Fullback Hawaii Leafa Teo grinded out 115 yards on 15 rushes.

“It’s a much-improved team,” said Ripon coach Chris Johnson, whose teams allowed just three points in blowout victories over Lathrop the past two seasons. “They have some good players and they are much more fundamentally sound than they’ve been.

“(Lathrop coach Steve Wichman) is doing a good job, and I think with enough time they’re going to do very well. And another thing is that they never quit. We jumped on them early and they just came right back at us and made a game of it.”

Ripon sealed its first win of 2014 with a strong finish. The Indians capped off a 5-minute, 37-second drive with a 16-yard catch and run from Mario Roach midway through the fourth quarter. The decisive possession was set up by hard-earned yardage gained by the running attack.

The score expanded Ripon’s advantage to 38-25. It wasn’t until defensive tackle Lionel Reyes returned a fumble 40 yards to paydirt with 1:06 to go that the Indians began to celebrate the victory. Evan Costa caused the fumble by sacking Chavez near midfield.

“We felt all offseason that our O-line was a strength of ours — we have some good players up front,” Johnson said. “We told them, ‘Hey, this is your time. This is when you’re going to determine what time we’re going to be this season.’ We put it on their backs and they did the job. That was huge. That was the game right there, because (Lathrop) had the momentum.”

Although Lathrop continued to make strides offensively, it was a step backward for a defense that gave up just 22 points in its first two contests.

“We got caught out of position quite a bit,” Wichman said. “We over pursued gaps, had difficulty making tackles when we were around the ball and we didn’t create any turnovers. We just weren’t at our best on the defensive side of the ball.

“I give a lot of credit to Ripon tonight,” the second-year Lathrop coach added. “They came in hungry and they executed well. I think what it all boils down to is that the team that made the least amount of mistakes and capitalized on opportunities won the game. They did that.”