It took Paul Doherty barely a moment Friday night after a whirlwind game against a rival to declare his quarterback an elite player.

Beyond the footwork, the arm and the statistics, the Folsom High School coach said Ryder Lyons separates himself with the time he puts into his craft and his relentless drive to compete.

“He’s the best player in the section,” Doherty said of his sophomore signal caller. “I don’t care what anyone says.”

Lyons was certainly the best player in a game featuring top-flight talent and The Bee’s top-ranked teams at Prairie City Stadium. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound sophomore passed for 379 yards on 21-of-31 passing with four total touchdowns, leading No. 1 Folsom to a 42-21 victory over No. 2 Oak Ridge in a Sierra Foothill League opener that was every bit as good as advertised, and then some.

Already fielding national recruiting interest from Cal, Colorado and Notre Dame, Lyons opened the scoring with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Brian Ray III, then found him again for an 18-yard strike to make it 28-14 with 4:26 left in the fourth quarter. Lyons hit Ray again for a dazzling 85-yard strike to make it 35-21 with 3:11 left to go.

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On that play, Lyons extended the play on third-and-15 and found Ray at the 50. The Army-bound senior took off from there, thrilling the packed Folsom side and stunning the packed Oak Ridge side as the Bulldogs extended their remarkable winning streak against the Trojans to 20, dating back to 2006.

Daymion Rivera’s 30-yard breakaway touchdown capped the scoring for Folsom with 1:38 to go as a 14-14 game after three quarters suddenly became a fourth-quarter shootout.

Folsom (4-2) has won the SFL six times since entering the league before the 2014 season, but it gets no easier from here. The Bulldogs next visit 6-0 Rocklin, which will likely move up to No. 2 in the next Bee rankings. Folsom’s losses were to Northern California No. 1 Serra of San Mateo (21-14) and to NorCal No. 2 De La Salle of Concord (14-7).

Oak Ridge (5-1) next week heads to Loomis to take on Del Oro, which entered the weekend ranked fifth. Del Oro is where Trojans coach Casey Taylor won 149 games, and he now seeks his 200th. In short, the SFL is a wild ride every week, and anything goes.

For all the plays that Lyons makes, for all of the touchdowns the Bulldogs score, none of it happens without some of the best linemen in the Sac-Joaquin Section, be it on the offensive line or the defensive trenches. This includes Theo Greule, Elijah Gulewich and Lucas Hardeman. This trio could throw tractor tires or beer kegs over walls to loosen up.

“Those are our goons,” Doherty said.

That would make the skill guys the blurs or the jets. This includes sophomore receiver Jameson Powell, who had a 10-yard run for a 21-14 Folsom lead with 5:41 left in the fourth quarter.

And Ray? He emerged late last season as Folsom won the program’s eighth section crown since 2010 and reached another Northern California title game. Ray has good hands and even faster feet, and he is a load in the open field at 6-2 and 185 pounds.

“I told my dad (Pat), who’s 75 years old, that you might want to put him on your fantasy team,” Doherty said of his father, who is a fixture at Folsom games. “He had no idea what I was talking about. Great player.”

Lyons knows a lot of the Oak Ridge players, having played with them in youth sports. His older brother, Walker, spent his freshman season in El Dorado Hills before his transfer and star tight end run at Folsom. Oak Ridge’s senior class beat Folsom in youth football and as freshmen. A rematch could happen in the section Division I finals, like it did a year ago.

“It was a really big game, and I do take what I do personally,” Lyons said. “We all put a lot of time in.”

Erick Orme had scoring runs of 2, 1 and 1 yards for Oak Ridge, his last one coming with 3:39 left to pull his team to within 28-21.

Oak Ridge was at full strength for the first time this season, all the key cogs in place, including the return of star 6-3, 235-pound two-way player Gavin Molloy. Lineman Markus Hoffman is one of the most dominant guys in the trenches in the section, and Jasen Womack plays beyond his years as a sophomore playmaker at running back and on defense.

Taylor is in his third season coaching at Oak Ridge, his alma mater and where he got his coaching start as an assistant some 25 years ago. He recalled the rivalry games between Oak Ridge and Folsom when he played in those contests in the 1980s.

This is a series that included Oak Ridge winning nine games in succession over Folsom through 2005 before Folsom turned it with the current streak.

“A lot of great games, but if we want to make it a great rivalry, we’ve gotta win one,” Taylor said.

As for a shot at career win No. 200 at Del Oro, where he won section, NorCal and state banners, Taylor said: “That’d be a great night to do it. But it won’t be easy.”

Nothing is easy in the SFL.