El Capitan High football can’t overcome mistakes in loss to Ripon Christian

The El Capitan High football schedule immediately got tougher when Ripon Christian was added as a last-minute replacement.

The Gauchos showed grittiness and battled the perennial small-school power, but the Knights (1-1) came up with two defensive stands late to hold onto a 23-13 victory over El Capitan (1-1) at Merced College’s Stadium ‘76 on Friday night.

“We had some soul searching in film last week, and we challenged the guys to get tougher when it’s fourth-and-inches on our side, and fourth-and-inches on their side,” said Ripon Christian head coach Phil Grams. “We challenge our guys to get tougher during the week and we did tonight.”

The Gauchos were originally scheduled to play Florin on Friday night, but the school folded the football program due to a lack of players before the start of the season.

Ripon Christian became available because its scheduled opponent, Le Grand, is suspended for its three games after an altercation with Tranquillity in a preseason scrimmage.

Both coaches were happy to find a game for their players.

“It’s just so weird when you have to schedule games at the last minute like that,” Grams said.

The Gauchos had some bright spots, including a 75-yard touchdown run by running back Lorenzo Peters on the first offensive play of the game.

Peters worked his way around the right side and went untouched down the field to give the Gauchos a 7-0 lead before fans had a chance to sit down after the opening kickoff.

El Capitan was able to hit the Knights with some big plays as Peters finished with 10 carries for 142 yards to go along with three catches for 51 yards.

However, the Gauchos couldn’t overcome issues with their snapping all game. Snaps were sailing over the head of quarterback Sergio Mendoza, stalling drives and preventing El Capitan from pounding the ball with its running game.

There were also snapping issues on field goal attempts and punts.

“Our defense finally made some adjustments to get the ball and a couple bad snaps, it just doesn’t go our way,” said El Capitan coach Xavier Ramirez. “It’s things that we got to fix in practice. Things that we saw in practice, they kind of reared their heads out here today.”

The Knights leaned on their running game, grinding out tough yards to move the chains. What Ripon Christian lacked in explosive plays, it made up with consistency and moving the ball downfield.

Knights running back Lushen Sanders carried the ball 20 times for 64 yards and three touchdowns. Sanders scored on runs of 1, 1, and 3 yards as the Knights built a 23-13 lead.

The Gauchos had opportunities late in the fourth quarter to pull within one score, but twice they were stopped inside the Knights’ 5-yard line on fourth-and-inches.

“We can learn from it, it’s our own mistakes,” Peters said. “It’s the defense jumping offsides. It’s the offense giving up on plays. It’s inconsistency throughout the week. We’ve been inconsistent with our play.”

Despite the loss, Ramirez liked the competitive spirit he saw from his players late.

“They’re still gritty, still fighting, they still want it,” Ramirez said. “I feel like they need to understand that we can’t let games like this happen. We just got to continue to get better.”