Central Catholic holds off Oakdale to win Valley Oak League championship

As players and fans milled about David Patton Field following Central Catholic’s 42-37 victory over Oakdale on Friday night, in which the Raiders held off a furious rally by the Mustangs to wrap up the Valley Oak League title and a perfect regular season, Oakdale’s Lane Trapp strode over to the Central Catholic’s Justin Rice and offered a congratulatory handshake.

“We’ll see you at sections,” said Trapp.

“Most definitely,” replied Rice.

Yes, it seems inevitable that these teams, both winners of Sac-Joaquin Section titles last season, both 9-0 entering Friday’s showdown, will meet again.

“I hope so,” said Raiders linebacker-fullback Kekupa’a Freehauf, who helped his team to Division IV section and state crowns last season. “I don’t want an easy road to state again. I want a challenge. I live for nights like this.”

Any future meeting will occur in the Division III playoffs, and the teams will learn their postseason fate soon enough.

Central Catholic is a virtual lock for the No. 1 seed, thanks largely to Rice, who rushed for 292 yards and three touchdowns; a defensive stand in the final two minutes; and a first down by the length of a football with about a minute to play.

Reminiscent of last year’s D-III section final when Oakdale overcame a 20-point halftime deficit to beat Inderkum 27-23, the Mustangs battled back from 21 down against the Raiders to make it 42-37 on Adam Olsen’s 25-yard touchdown pass to Gregory Hickman with 3:33 to play.

The Mustangs appeared to convert the two-point conversion, which would have put them within a field goal, but were flagged for holding near the goal line.

From just outside the 10, Olsen’s pass attempt was batted down, and it remained a five-point margin.

“You can circle 20 plays that were big in this football game,” said Oakdale coach Trent Merzon. “If we get the two-point play, we’re in overtime. We kick a field goal down there with the best kicker in the area, and we’re in overtime.”

By “down there,” Merzon was referring to the Raiders’ 23-yard line, where the Mustangs turned over the ball on downs.

Had the Mustangs made the two-point conversion, they would not have been forced to go for it on fourth-and-14. Trapp would have come on to attempt a 40-yarder, well within his range. But with Oakdale down by five, Olsen’s last-gasp attempt over the middle was batted down by Rice.

The VOL title and a 10-0 regular season were in the bag for Central Catholic ... almost.

With 1:50 left to play, Oakdale still had all three of its timeouts, so the Raiders still had work to do.

Rice gained 12 yards to the 35 on first down, and Oakdale let the clock roll. Rice gained a total of four on his next two carries, with Oakdale calling a timeout after each attempt. That made it third-and-6 with about a minute to play.

The Raiders called for quarterback Hunter Petlansky to run a bootleg to his left, and he met the Oakdale defenders in the vicinity of the first-down marker with just under a minute remaining.

“I was pretty confident that I got the yards for the first down,” said Petlansky, who has verbally committed to play at Columbia next season.

He may have been the only one.

The first-down sticks were trotted all the way across the field, which showed the Raiders had the first down by the length of the football.

Rice, The Bee’s reigning Player of the Year who has committed to play next year at Fresno State, rushed for 152 yards and two scores before the game was four minutes old. And after Oakdale’s second punt on as many drives to start the game, Daron Bland’s 43-yard gain on a screen set up Freehauf’s one-yard touchdown plunge.

Not only were the Mustangs (9-1, 6-1) rocked by the Raiders’ offensive surge, the loss of two-way lineman Louis Marsella to a shoulder injury was even tougher to overcome.

“We lost our best football player on the game’s first play, and we blinked,” Merzon said. “And you can’t blink against a great team.”

Down 21-0, the Mustangs answered when Olsen scrambled in from the 17. Central stretched the margin back to 21 on Petlansky’s 13-yard pass to Noah Jones-Porter with 47 seconds remaining in the half, but Oakdale sprinted down the field and managed to get on the board with two ticks left as Trapp booted a 32-yard field to make it 28-10 at halftime.

“I knew they were going to come back in the second half,” said CC coach Roger Canepa. “They don’t quit. They’ve got a great football team. They didn’t win that many championships by giving up.”

Oakdale got the ball to start the second half and needed just three plays to score. The capper was a 42-yard jaunt by Brad Aquino, who rushed for 158 yards on 15 carries. After forcing the Raiders to punt, Oakdale made it 28-23 on Aquino’s one-yard burst into the end zone.

Central Catholic answered on Rice’s 20-yard touchdown run that made it 35-23, then appeared to finally put away the Mustangs when Freehauf bulled his way in from the 12 for a 42-23 lead.

But Oakdale needed less than two minutes to cut the deficit to 42-29 when Olsen found Logan Hall from 30 yards out. Olsen ran in for a two-point conversion, and the Mustangs again were within 11.

Bland returned the ensuing kickoff 29 yards to the Raiders’ 49, and a promising drive took the ball to Oakdale’s 33. But Rice fumbled, and the Mustangs recovered on their 31. Five plays later, Olsen hit Hickman to make it a one-score game and set the stage for the wild final three minutes.

Before the game, a moment of silence was observed for former Central Catholic principal Melissa Bengtson-Besseling, who died Oct. 30, and for Spencer Thomas, a 2013 Oakdale graduate and former football player who suffered a heart attack Thursday night.

This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 3:38 AM with the headline "Central Catholic holds off Oakdale to win Valley Oak League championship."