Ripon High opened the season on Friday with a wild exchange with visiting team Linden.

The long, drawn-out battle – especially in the second half – ended with a 33-yard field goal by Lions kicker Sebastian Trujillo, giving his team a 47-44 victory.

“We made a lot of mistakes tonight,” said Indians coach Chris Musseman. “Most of them are correctable.”

The defense was a problem. Ripon had no answer for quarterback Matthew Schallberger, who completed 19 of his 29 passes for 237 yards and four touchdowns.

He was able to convert three of his passes for two-point conversions and scored another point towards the end of the game.

“We committed some crucial penalties,” Musseman said of the mistakes that happened towards the end of the game.

Ripon (0-1) had some difficulties at the beginning of the first half before getting into their stride just before half-time.

Linden (1-0) opened the game with a 68-yard run in six plays and capped it off with a 7-yard touchdown from Schallberger to DeAndre Smith.

The Indians were lucky when the Lions’ special teams sailed a snap over the head of punter Schallberger – which he also managed – into the end zone and scored a two-point safety.

In the second quarter, Ripon finally got its offense rolling with runs by Nathan Curless, one of the game’s standout defensive players, Eric Guevara and Brett Shaw, who was warming up.

Quarterback JJ Brawley found Logan Lefebvre on a pass on fourth down to keep the drive alive. Lefebvre fought his way into the end zone from 2 yards out to give his team the lead.

This chance did not last long, however, as the Lions marched down the field on their next possession and Schallberger again hit Smith to score the goal.

But just before the end of the half, Shaw made an inside reverse, ran 73 yards to the finish and gave Ripon a 16-14 lead at halftime.

Linden’s special teams returned an earlier favor in the third quarter by blocking a punt and allowing Ross Herrington to scoop up the ball for a touchdown.

Ripon responded to its possession with Brawley hitting Logan Spear, who converted the play into a 55-yard touchdown.

Nose guard Tipeti Paini then recovered a fumble, giving his team excellent field position. The Indians took advantage of the loss and Shaw ran 18 yards for another touchdown.

Later in the quarter, the Ripon defense made a fourth down stop. Shaw scored again, putting his team ahead 37-22 at 2:19.

Linden opened the fourth quarter with an 8-yard pass from Schallberger that was caught by Dax Weber, who again found his favorite target Smith for the two-point conversion.

Angel Rubio of the Lions recovered a fumble. Schallberger followed up and connected with Weber again – the 16-yard pass reduced the lead to one point (Ripon successfully prevented the two-point attempt), 37-36.

Shaw scored his fourth touchdown at 9:06 of the fourth inning, covering 50 yards to extend Ripon’s lead to 44-36.

Linden benefited from several penalties, including two personal fouls late in the game.

The Lions tied the game at 44-44 at the 5:44 mark – Schallberger scored a 6-yard touchdown and found Weber on the two-point conversion – and scored the decisive goal shortly thereafter.

Musseman wants his team to put the heartbreaking loss in the first game of the season behind them.

“We’re growing,” he said of his team’s overall lack of experience at the college level.