It is not often a punt sets up a touchdown, but it does happen and it did happen Friday night for host Ripon.

Late in the first half Ripon punter Gavin Duran blasted a punt 61 yards to pin sixth-seeded Colfax deep in its own territory. On the next play, Jude Viss blasted the Falcons quarterback, forcing a fumble and allowing teammate Xabriel Reyes to scoop and sprint 14 yards to put No. 3 Ripon ahead by 20 points on the way to a 41-21 win to open the Sac-Joaquin Section Division VI playoffs at Stouffer Field.

“This was my best night punting, for sure,” Duran said. “Well, I saw they didn’t have a returner, so I kicked it as far as I could and got a good roll on it.”

Viss had a sack earlier in the game, and he pulled in a 20-yard touchdown pass from Andrew Shaw.

“He was running, and I thought he was going to throw,” Viss said. “He slowed down, my eyes got wide and I just hit him as hard as I could.”

Shaw (8-of-10 passing, 116 yards, two touchdowns) hit Jacoby Salinas with an 11-yard scoring toss for his other touchdown to open the second quarter and bump Ripon’s lead to 21-0.

“I felt pretty good out there,” Shaw said. “It’s been a big goal of ours to go on a playoff run this year. Coming out tonight and getting the first win definitely feels good and we’re really excited for next week.”

Kael Rangel (15 carries, 114 yards) ran over, around and through the Falcons (5-6) all night, scoring on runs of 2 and 48 yards.

“My O-line did its job,” Rangel said. “The tight ends did their jobs.

“We played great, couldn’t have asked for a better offensive effort. I love everyone out here.”

Nikolai Vitz (five carries, 80 yards) scored on a 68-yard run for Ripon (6-5) as well as snagging an interception.

Drew Walker also had a Ripon interception. Reyes and Omar Reyes led the Ripon defense with five stops apiece, Ben Vita, Ace Dougherty and Matthew Scheffel added four tackles each with three for both Josiah Perez and Matthew Gomes.

Ripon coach Cole Williams was pleased with his team’s effort.

“It feels really good,” Williams said. “We knew they were a good team. Our boys were prepared, they executed and played hard and did everything we asked.

“I’m very happy.”

Colfax’s Adam Amatangelo (9-of-23 passing, 170 yards) threw touchdown passes of 20 yards to Jake Machado and 44 yards to Brady Stowers, but he was sacked six times for negative-31 yards.

Ripon travels to Lincoln on Friday to face second-seeded Lincoln at 6 p.m.