RIPON, Wis. - Ripon's football team scored 18 unanswered points in the second half of Saturday's game, en route to a 24-13 win against Illinois College. That win keeps Ripon undefeated as they move to 4-0 on the season, which marks the program's best start to a season since 2010, when they won their first five games.

"It comes down to the character of our team and they've shown it throughout the year. Today was a very hard fought game and was the toughest one we've had all season," Ripon Head Coach Ron Ernst said. "Our player's backs were against the wall several times and we just kept coming back, which is a credit to our leadership and the culture that we've built within our program."

Ripon's first score of the day was set up thanks to an Illinois College miscue, as they snapped the ball over the head of their quarterback and the fumble was recovered on the IC four-yard line by Seth Lane. One play later, the Red Hawks were in the end zone on a four-yard Connor Ramage touchdown, giving Ripon a 6-0 lead in the final minutes of the opening quarter. Illinois College tied things up in the opening minutes of the second period on a 44-yard touchdown pass from Logan Wongler to Conner Brunstein. Illinois College (0-4, 0-3 MWC) would then take their first lead of the contest on the final play of the half when Andrew Gaul connected with KJ Corley in the end zone for a 20-yard strike.

Ripon (4-0, 3-0 MWC) showed they had big-play ability as well in the second half, which saw Jarrett Zibert connect with Tiegan Bothun for an 83-yard touchdown, which is tied for the ninth-longest pass completion in program history. After they failed to convert the PAT, the Red Hawks trailed 13-12 mid-way through the third quarter. The Red Hawks would then grab the lead on the first play of the fourth quarter when Zibert hooked up with Kaipo Magsayo for a 33-yard touchdown and an 18-13 lead.

With nine minutes and 48 seconds left, Ripon would get the ball back again. They wouldn't give it up again until they scored the game-sealing touchdown with 18 seconds remaining. That score came on fourth-and-five, and resulted in a 12-yard touchdown pass from Zibert to Braden Folbrecht.

"I wanted to play to win the game and our offense came through and made some key plays on that final drive," Ernst said. "Walter Bryant made an unbelievable catch to convert a huge fourth down play and I'm very proud of our players for coming through on that drive."

Ripon out-gained Illinois College in total yardage by a 406-267 margin. Zibert completed 18-of-27 passes for 249 yards and three touchdowns, while also rushing for a team-high 57 yards on eight carries (7.1 ypc). Bothun was his go-to man for most of the game, catching five passes for 136 yards.

"Those two are starting to form a pretty good connection," Ernst said. "Tiegan was getting open a lot today and Jarrett got him the ball."

Defensively, Lane led the Red Hawks with seven tackles. Devin Smith contributed six tackles and his team-leading third interception of the season, while Zach Bunders registered the team's only sack on a corner blitz.

"We gave up two long touchdown passes, but other than that, our defense played extremely well," Ernst said. "When we needed to make a stop, we did."

Illinois College was led by Devin Tynan's 108 yards on 21 carries. The Blueboys were limited to just 91 yards passing on 14 attempts. Defensively, IC blocked three kicks (one field goal and two extra points), while also tallying an interception and fumble recovery.

Ripon will try to keep things rolling next weekend when they'll make the trek to Grinnell, Iowa to battle Grinnell College on Saturday at 1 p.m. That game can be seen live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.

"We're taking every game one at a time," Ernst said. "We respect every single team on our schedule, but fear no one. There are a lot of good teams left on the schedule, and we have to be ready to go each week."