Ripon had two shots at a two-point conversion to take the lead in the fourth quarter but came up empty-handed en route to a 14-13 loss to visiting Liberty Ranch on Friday.
The Indians (2-3), who trailed 14-0 in the second quarter, came to within a point with 4:31 to go after Xzavier Clark’s 45-yard run. Their throw on the conversion fell incomplete, but Liberty Ranch (2-2) was called for a pass interference.
Ripon’s second opportunity, a run play, was stuffed.
“We ran the same play 15 times tonight for big yards, but we just didn’t get it done on that one,” Ripon coach Chris Musseman said.
Clark finished with two touchdowns, the other a 35-yard reception. He totaled 167 yards from scrimmage. Anden Ries came up with a fumble recovery in the second quarter to set up Ripon’s first TD.
Quarterback Kymani Fenika and running back Joseph Brown scored on runs for the Hawks from Galt.
“We just stalled out on some drives (early on),” Musseman said. “It should have never been 14-0. I made a bad call at the goal line on fourth-and-goal in the first half. We kept driving the ball and a penalty or something would happen to get us behind the sticks.
“We just couldn’t get it all together. We made some plays and put ourselves in position to win the game. Our defense made a couple mistakes early but played really well all night, we just couldn’t finish drives.”
The Indians kick off Trans-Valley League play next week at Modesto Christian.
Lathrop 24, Pacheco 21
The Spartans scored a touchdown in every quarter Friday night with Julio Garcia running in two scores to lead them to the narrow Western Athletic Conference win at Bennie Gatto Field.
“We played our style of physical football on offense and defense,” Spartans coach Ryan Teicheira said. “We were able to stop one of our league’s best running backs.
“Jordan Blase and Teagan Shevlin had a great heads-up play for a passing touchdown. Andre Muqhar and Pablo Pena ran the ball hard and the line was opening up holes all night long.”
Garcia’s two scores came on 4 and 5 yards and his 70 yards on 12 carries was part of a balanced ground game for Lathrop (2-0 WAC, 3-2 overall). Pena (15 carries, 72 yards) scored on a 5-yard run with Muqhar adding 68 yards on 11 carries. Shevlin pulled in a short touchdown pass from Blase.
Sean Teu was in on four tackles to lead the Spartans defense that held the Panthers (0-2, 1-4) to 152 total yards. Garcia and Jimari Dove added three stops apiece.
Lathrop travels to Modesto next Friday to face Beyer at 7 p.m.
