The Ripon Indians will head out on the road to face off against the Escalon Cougars at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Ripon will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps California Rankings (they are ranked 544th, while Escalon is ranked 93rd).
While it was all tied up 7-7 at halftime, Ripon was not quite Livingston's equal in the second half on Friday. Ripon took a hard 28-14 fall against Livingston. Ripon has now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Meanwhile, Escalon had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 22.7 points), and they went ahead and made it four on Friday. They blew past Hilmar, posting a 49-21 win at home. With Escalon ahead 35-14 at the half, the match was all but over already.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Escalon to victory, but perhaps none more so than Jamin Miller, who rushed for 73 yards and a touchdown, and also threw for 25 yards and a touchdown while completing 100% of his passes. Nico Franzia was in the mix too, providing Escalon with two touchdowns.
Escalon's victory bumped their season record to 7-1 while Ripon's loss dropped theirs to 3-5.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Friday's contest: Ripon has been excellent on the ground this season, having averaged 150.4 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Escalon struggles in that department as they've been even better at 259.4 per game. It's looking like Friday's match might have some serious battles in the trenches.
Ripon was dealt a bruising 43-0 loss at the hands of Escalon in their previous meeting back in October of 2022. Thankfully for Ripon, Logan Anderson (who rushed for 79 yards and two touchdowns on only seven carries, and also picked up 52 receiving yards) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
