RIPON — Leading by just a point at halftime Thursday, East Union rode the powerful legs of Johntae Maggard to 32-unanswered second-half points on the way to a 39-6 win over Ripon to open the COVID-shortened Valley Oak League football season at Stouffer Field.

The Lancers (1-0) scored on both of their opening drives in each half with Maggard (15 carries, 159 yards) doing the honors on both with a 34-yard scamper in the first quarter and a 9-yard burst in the third. 

“The holes were open,” Maggard said. “I am thankful for the linemen to open those holes — if it wasn’t for them, those plays would not have happened.”

Carlos Alvarez (four carries, 50 yards) had standout plays on both sides of the ball with a 26-yard touchdown run in the third quarter and a fourth-quarter interception.

“It was a great team effort,” Alvarez said. “I made those plays because of the way the team did its job which allowed me to do my job.

“Credit to the team with all the hard work in practice and all year long. It’s good to be out here balling out again and it was a great team win.”

Thanks to an interception by Payton Graham, Tyler Diaz (seven carries, 61 yards) was able to score a pair of fourth-quarter East Union touchdowns within two minutes of each other. With 8:29 left in the game, Diaz scampered in from 10 yards out and then following Graham’s interception Diaz pulled in a pass from Luke Weaver (6 of 8 passing, 87 yards, touchdown, no interceptions) with 6:36 remaining. 

Alvarez’s interception set up the final Lancers score on a 3-yard run by Lane Cefalu with 1:44 left in the game. 

East Union coach Willie Herrera was all smiles after the victory.

“It’s always good after a win,” Herrera said. “Especially after more than a year off the field.

“The elements dictated that we pound the ball. I’m glad we were able to do that with just a few weeks of practice after time in the weight room and conditioning. I’m proud of the kids, but we are definitely not in the shape we need to be in — not even close.”

The Indians (0-1) got on the board in the second quarter on a 14-yard scoring pass from Aaron Wood (6 of 11, touchdown, three interceptions) to Bronson Burrow, making the score 7-6. After that, Ripon just ran out of gas. 

“We have had a week and a half of practice.” Indians coach Chris Musseman said. “We don’t have 50 guys on the sideline, we ran out of gas and they came out and punched us in the mouth in the second half and we didn’t respond very well.

“I didn’t prepare them well and we didn’t play well and that’s on me.” 

The two teams combined for 11 first-quarter penalties.

SCORING SUMMARY

East Union 7 0 13 19 – 39 

Ripon 0 6   0   0 – 6

First quarter 

E — Johntae Maggard 34 run (Luke Weaver kick), 8:53 

Second quarter

R — Bronson Burrow 14 pass from Aaron Wood (kick fail), 9:25 

Third quarter 

E — Maggard 9 run (pass fail), 9:25

E — Carlos Alvarez 26 run (Weaver kick), 3:03

Fourth quarter

E — Tyler Diaz 10 run (kick fail), 8:29

E — Diaz 13 pass from Weaver (Weaver kick), 6:36

E — Lane Cefalu 3 run (pass fail), 1:44