By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Bulletin correspondent

The Ripon Christian Knights dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball en route to a hard fought 21-6 victory over visiting Bear River in the Sac-Joaquin Division VI playoff opening round at Memorial Stadium on Friday night.

The Knights are in Division VI after winning back-to-back Division VII titles and proved to be up to the challenge against the visiting Bruins, who finished the regular season 8-2 and as runners-up in the Pioneer Valley League. The strength of the Trans Valley league, which was the only league in the section to send every team to the playoffs, helped the 4-6 Knights garner the 8 seed and a first-round home game.

Coach Phil Grams spoke to the difficult schedule his team navigated that led to them hosting Bear River.

“They play in a good league, but to me there is the SFL (Sierra Foothill League) and the TVL who are the two best conferences in the section,” Grams said. “We’re smaller schools, but week after week it is so physical. Iron sharpens iron, and we are battle tested.”

Bear River proved to be yet another test for Grams’ Knights. The Bruins found success early on, feeding the ball to the running backs Lincoln Williams and Elijah Hickman, but the Ripon Christian defense rose to the occasion on third down multiple times in the first half behind stout play up front from senior standout Jimmy Heida and ball-hawking tackles from linebacker Chase Bunnell.

Ripon Christian was able to move the ball on the ground from the opening possession but struggled to piece together sustainable drives in the first quarter. That changed with the Knights first possession of the second frame, when junior quarterback Mason Tameling took a designed run up the right side for a 25-yard touchdown score to put Ripon Christian up 7-0 with 9:30 left in the second quarter. The dual-threat Tameling amassed 99 yards on eight carries on the night, behind an offensive line that coach Grams was pleased with after the game.

“We’ve been banged up on the line all season long,” he said. “We got a couple young guys in there and figured it out on our end tonight.”

The Knights’ line on both sides of the ball was led all night by Heida, who helped open big holes for running backs Lushen Sanders and Blake Stuit to the tune of 192 yards on the ground in the first half and 249 total on the night. Despite the success, Heida knew his unit could be better after going into the break ahead, 7-0.

“We went thought this entire week knowing we needed to play Knights football, and to be honest we came out slow,” Heida said. “But at halftime, we got a reboot and started to dominate again.”

Bear River, seemingly aware of the difficulty it would face moving the ball on the ground all evening, turned to the air to start the second half. Two 30-plus-yard completions from quarterback Jayden Brock to wide receiver Ben Barley set the Bruins up on the 1-yard line. Hickman punched in the lone score on the night on the very next play, bringing the visitors to within one point after a missed PAT.

The answer from Ripon Christian came just four minutes later, on a wild 31-yard touchdown pass from Tameling to senior wide receiver Josh Miller.

“To be honest, it was a designed quarterback run,” Miller said. “It all broke down, I saw Mason rolling right, he threw the ball up and I was lucky enough to make a play on it.”

The vocal team leader snatched the ball from both the Bear River defender and his own teammate Stuit to put the Knights up 14-6 late in the third quarter.

On the ensuing possession, a turnover on downs from Bear River after a key second-down sack by Heida gave Ripon Christian the ball back at their 29-yard line with 9:30 left in the game. What came next was what would have to be called a season defining offensive drive for the Knights, who went 71 yards on 13 plays capped off by a 1-yard plunge by Stuit to put the home team up 21-6 for good with just 1:49 to play.

Heida acknowledged just how big the final drive was for his team, who had difficulty putting away teams at times in their inaugural season in the vaunted TVL.

“They could have come back,” Heida said. “In some other games we were in this season teams came back on us. We have to get up and run the clock. If you control the clock, you control the game.”

Grams knew just how big the drive was in helping put the game away for his team.

“My coaches on the sidelines said we needed an 8-minute drive, and I let them down — it was 7 minutes and 30 seconds,” he joked.

Up next for the Knights is a date with undefeated five-time section champion Bradshaw Christian of Sacramento, which has outscored opponents 455-90 on the season. Grams knows his team has some work to do going into the matchup with the No. 1 seed.

“We have some stuff we need to clean up,” he said. “That Bradshaw Christian team is undefeated and have it rolling. Have nothing but respect for that program, and we have our work cut out for us, for sure.”