West Park is no ordinary No. 8 seed.

Ripon was fully aware of this going into the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV quarterfinal Wednesday at Stouffer Field. The Panthers of Roseville could be a force in higher divisions in upcoming seasons, but for now they’re a win away from reaching the championship game after toppling top-seeded Ripon, 4-2.

Stanford commit Erica Grilione scored three goals and assisted the other for West Park (9-6-1), a second-year school without seniors. No. 5 Kimball of Tracy hosts the Panthers in the semifinals Friday.

West Park put the rest of the D-IV field on notice when it routed No. 9 Livingston 9-0 in the first round. Grilione netted six goals in the opener, and she now has 31 spread across nine just games.

Ripon (20-4), which had a first-round bye, swept Livingston in two regular-season games by a combined score of 3-0 en route to winning the outright Trans-Valley League title. 

“We were eventually going to hit somebody tough anyway, and we got it right off the bat,” Ripon coach Bryce Perkins said.

And his Indians were in trouble right off the bat on Wednesday, with Grilione scoring in the sixth and seventh minutes.

Ripon quickly responded had the Panthers on their heels for much of the rest of the half. Senior midfielder Maddy Winter accounted for both of Ripon’s goals, first scoring in the ninth minute after Gabbi Ilardi delivered a free kick into the box from midfield.

The equalizer came in the 20th minute, as Winter put away a penalty kick awarded after West Park defender Sydney Gums was whistled for a handball in the box.

“We needed something to happen to get us going and to get us pumped up,” Winter said. “Our team is great at coming back. We don’t stop or shut down.”

The Indians had a chance to jump ahead in the 30th minute when Makenna Pokorny’s free kick headed for the upper-left corner was tipped away by goalie Morgan Choe.

Momentum swung back in West Park’s favor at the end of the half when Ripon was penalized for a handball in the box, and Grilione converted from the spot in the final minute of the half.

“In the first half, even though we were down, we outpossessed them, we outpassed them and we outshot them,” Perkins said. “I just knew we could get back in that game and we did, it was just unfortunate we picked up that ticky-tack PK there at the end of the first half.”

Ripon missed an opportunity to tie it back up in the first minute of the second half when Olivia Maragos missed a left-footed breakaway shot wide. The freshman phenom was otherwise neutralized by the West Park defense.

“They’re a really good, strong team,” West Park coach Dave Underhill said of Ripon. “They were very determined. I just told my girls in the second half that we need to be a little bit more determined than them, and I think they took that to heart and we won the ball a little bit more in the second half.”

The Indians’ attack could not get untracked for the rest of the match. Winter was sidelined for the entire second half for a possible concussion. Jaydin Kroutil, the team’s playmaking midfielder, sat out the final 22 minutes with leg cramps. Ripon was already without Ines Rodriguez for the match, as she tended to a commitment with the city’s Almond Blossom Festival.

That left Perkins without his entire starting midfield for the majority of the second half, forcing him to throw junior varsity reinforcements into the fire.

“They control the game,” Perkins said of his midfield trio, adding that Winter is the “best captain” the team has had in his 20 years with the program. “Pokorny did a heck of a job, she was everywhere. I thought those JV (players) came up and showed themselves very well. We hung in there.”

West Park got its insurance goal in the 64th minute when Madison Hamm headed a corner-kick cross from Grilione.

Any hope of a comeback was dashed in the 75th minute, as Grilione drew a red-card ejection after she was fouled by a Ripon defender on a breakaway.

“I’m so proud of our girls,” Winter said. “They worked their butts off until the very last second. They’re going to have such a good team for the next four years. The team that came off the field at the very end of the game had four freshmen. It stinks that I’m done, but I’m so happy for them.”