RIPON — Ripon officially gained a third straight share of the Trans Valley League championship Friday with its 48-0 thrashing of Modesto Christian.
Escalon and Hilmar are part of the tri-championship, and all three finish the regular season with mirroring 9-1 records. For postseason purposes, the Indians are the No. 1 team out of the TVL due to the point-differential tiebreaker and will play up in the Sac-Joaquin Section’s Division V bracket while their chief league rivals compete in Division VI.
“It’s super gratifying, especially when, coming into the year, everyone was saying Escalon is winning everything,” Ripon coach Chris Musseman said. “We knew we had a great group of kids, we were just limited in numbers. I don’t know if there has ever been a time in Ripon’s history when it won three in a row, but it just says a lot about our special group of seniors.”
Those seniors made their impact with limited playing time against Modesto Christian (1-5, 1-9), a rebuilding program that forfeited its previous game with Hilmar because of low numbers.
As one would expect, this one was decided early, and the running clock was instituted in the opening quarter. Two pass plays and two interception returns helped Ripon establish a 28-0 lead just 2 minuetes, 28 seconds into the contest.
Nico Ilardi completed touchdown passes of 37 and 7 yards to Brandon Rainer and Troy Brogan, respectively, on his only throws of the night. Rainer capped the early burst with an interception return, and third-year starter Dorian Dougherty earlier had a pick-six of his own.
Grant Wiebe (four rushes, 50 yards) scored on a 5-yard run with 2:39 still to go in the first quarter, and Nathan Valdez’s conversion kick gave Ripon a 35-0 lead.
Sophomore call-ups Jack Manning and Danny Espinoza (four rushes, 42 yards) added second-half touchdown runs from 2 and 33 yards out, respectively. Danny Hernandez paced the Indians with 53 rushing yards on just four carries.
Ripon did not only gain another piece of the TVL crown on Friday.
“We got to empty the bench in the first quarter, which is huge for us,” Musseman said. “Staying healthy was important, and we have six sophomores up who got to have a lot of playing time. That helps us down the road in the playoffs. There will be times when we’ll need them to play, so these reps are important for them.”
Postseason brackets will be released Sunday on the NFHS Network’s website.

SCORING SUMMARY
Modesto Ch.   0 0 0 0 — 0
Ripon  35 0 7 6 — 48

First quarter
R—Brandon Ranier 37 pass from Nico Ilardi (Nathan Valdez kick), 11:18
R—Dorian Dougherty interception return (Valdez kick), 11:02
R—Troy Brogan 7 pass from Ilardi (Valdez kick), 9:40
R—Rainer interception return (Valdez kick), 9:32
R—Grant Wiebe 5 run (Valdez kick), 2:39

Third quarter
R—Jack Manning 2 run (Valdez kick), 1:52

Fourth quarter
R—Daniel Espinoza 33 run (kick failed), 1:07.