Score early, score often, wash, rinse, repeat.

When Ripon Christian’s Brady Grondz glided 59 yards on the game’s first play of the opening-round contest of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division VII-A football playoffs against visiting Golden Sierra, it looked too easy. In hindsight it was because the score was called back due to holding.

That was one of very few mistakes the No. 1 Knights would make on the evening, as they pounded the eighth-seeded Grizzlies from Garden Valley 63-0.

Grondz finished with 69 yards on 10 carries with two touchdown runs of 4-yards each.

“It’s not good getting a long run like that taken away,” Grondz said. “But when things in life get hard and something goes wrong, you have to bounce back.”

Mason Tameling directed the offense for Ripon Christian (10-1), going 7-of-7 passing for 142 yards with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Luke Crivello (three receptions, 47 yards) and a 53-yard pass to Jace Beidleman which set up a 13-yard first-quarter touchdown run by Grant Sonke (six carries, 75 yards). Later in the opening period Sonke added a 6-yard touchdown run.

“The offense was moving strong,” Tameling said. “We have been run-oriented a lot this year, but coach has let me loose a little.

“That has built my confidence, and I think I am putting the ball where it needs to be.”

After Grondz’s long run was called back, Trevor Van Elderen (three carries, 42 yards) capped the opening Knights drive with a 10-yard touchdown run. He tallied a 15-yard scoring run in the second quarter.

“It’s always fun to get a game like this in,” Van Elderen said. “It was a good time out there and there were some good blockers in front of me too.”

Preston Zuidervaart and Logan De Jong made five tackles apiece to lead the Ripon Christian defense that held the Grizzles (4-6) to minus-47 yards.

“Everyone just put everything they had into this game,” De Jong said. “And we had the JV players backing us up.”

Chase Bunnell notched two turnovers for the Knights with a fumble recovery and an interception that had been tipped by Andrew Mensonides and Zuidervaart.

“On that interception I have to give a shout out to Jace Biedleman,” Bunnell said. “He told me not to blitz.

“And on the fumble recovery like the interception, I was just in the right place at the right time.”

After Ripon Christian coach Phil Grams emptied his bench to start the running-clock second half, the Knights added two more scores on a 4-yard run by Ricky Van Unen and a 23-yard by Lushen Sanders.

Sonke, Grondz and Crivello are part of this year’s senior class for Ripon Christian.

“This is a great group of seniors,” Grams said. “We have been together for four years. I got hired during COVID and they were the freshmen COVID kids. They played club football together, went through all those sanctions together and this is the first time that we got to experience a home playoff game since 2019 because we were under sanctions. We aren’t mad at anybody about that, that’s just how it was.

“These guys were looking forward to this and they prepare hard every single week. This goes all the way back to the summer and the weight room. This is the best group I have ever had in the weight room, studying film, knowing our offense and our defense and we have just got to know each other so well through these experiences and endured so much. Finally, they get a home playoff game and they just played hard and celebrated.” 

The Knights will host another playoff game next Friday when No. 4 Rio Vista comes to town at 7 p.m.