The Summerville Bears varsity football team began their defense of their first state title with a painful loss on the road Friday night to the Ripon Christian Knights, 35-21, in Ripon.
The Bears started slow, and managed to fight back and tie the game three times, but their comeback efforts unraveled with two fourth-quarter interceptions.
Bright spots for the Bears included the play of senior receiver-safety Luke Larson on both sides of the ball, and senior running back Orlando Lopez, who juked numerous Ripon Christian defenders on a rambling, switchbacking kickoff return score to bring Summerville even at 21-21 with just over nine minutes left in the third quarter.
That was the last time the Bears found an answer to the Knights, who jumped out to leads of 7-0, 14-7, and 21-14 before they pulled away to make it 28-21 late in the third quarter.
Bears senior quarterback Bryce Leveroos, who scored Summerville’s first two touchdowns on first-half keepers to get into the Ripon Christian end zone, had less luck throwing the ball in the fourth quarter.
The first pick came on third-and-17 with 10:16 left in the game, as the Knights’ Mason Clark intercepted Leveroos’ pass at the Bears’ 30-yard line.
The Bears pushed Ripon Christian back and forced the Knights to punt, but Clark intercepted Leveroos again in the next series.
Ripon Christian kept the ball on the ground and ran it in to make it 35-21 with 4:04 left in the game.
Bears Head Coach Sean Leveroos told his team after the game that turnovers are the great equalizer in football.
Contact Guy McCarthy at gmccarthy@uniondemocrat.net or (209) 770-0405. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @GuyMcCarthy.