After anchoring a defense that allowed just six goals in eight Trans-Valley League games, Ripon High senior Emmanuel Sanchez was voted the conference’s Defensive MVP in the year-end coaches meeting.

The fourth-year varsity starter headlines a group of six Indians that is included on the All-TVL first team. Ripon finished 6-2 in league and 12-9-1 overall a year after capturing the school’s first-ever league title for boys soccer. The Indians were on pace to repeat following an unbeaten start to league but lost to eventual champion Riverbank and Escalon on consecutive outings.

Riverbank’s Martin Gonzalez is Coach of the Year, while Oscar Jimenez (nine goals in league) is Offensive Player of the Year. The Bruins (7-1, 17-7-2) reached the semifinal round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division V playoffs, while Ripon was eliminated in the opener by Linden, 3-2.

Fellow first-team selections Jared Lawlor and junior goalkeeper Johnathan Soto were instrumental in helping Sanchez solidify an otherwise young and unproven back line. Soto had two clean sheets in league play and averaged four saves in seven matches.

Senior Noah Lehmann, juniors Federico Entrade and Victor de la O and sophomore Thomas Sidtikun were Ripon’s offensive lynchpins and round out the team’s first-team honorees.

Lehmann was the overall scoring leader for the season with 17 goals and six assists. He tallied a single-game, career-high four goals in a 7-1 rout of Riverbank.

Entrade, a foreign-exchange student from Italy, gave the Indians a slick winger capable of delivering accurate crosses from either corner. Eight of his team-best 10 assists came against league opponents.

De la O finished with six goals and four assists overall. Sidtikun, a second-year varsity player as an underclassman, scored eight of his 14 goals in league and added eight assists overall.

Brandon Scott, Brent White, Robert Hutto and Patrick Maragos earned honorable mention for Ripon.