Central Catholic’s season ends without state title for first time in four years

For the first time since 2011, a Central Catholic football season came to an end without head coach Roger Canepa thrusting his fist into the air and yelling, “How ’bout them Raiders?”

Central Catholic (8-4) saw its season come to a crashing halt with a 42-14 loss to Jesuit in the quarterfinals of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II playoffs at Jesuit High School.

The Raiders had finished each of the last four seasons with a CIF state bowl championship, and Canepa’s exclamation had become something of a tradition.

Three of Central Catholic’s state titles came in Division IV and last year’s was in D-III.

Because of the section’s continued-success rule, Central faced a mandatory promotion to D-II, where it faced much larger schools.

Jesuit (9-3), which will entertain Inderkum in the semifinals next week, is a longtime D-I stalwart and found itself pushed into the D-II bracket for the first time this year.

Though the final margin looked lopsided – and the second half was, indeed – Central led by a touchdown in the second quarter and went into halftime tied.

Jared Rice electrified the Central Catholic crowd with his 98-yard kickoff return that tied the score 7-7 with 6:44 to play in the opening quarter. The momentum carried the Raiders to a 14-7 lead when quarterback Cole Petlansky, on a designed rollout, tucked the ball and scored from 12 yards out.

The lead was short-lived, however, when Jonathon Amadi returned the ensuing kickoff 94 yards to knot the score at 14.

Had the bout gone to the judges’ scorecards at that time, the Raiders may have eked out a split decision.

“We just played a little harder in the second half, I think,” said Jesuit head coach Marlon Blanton. “We executed a little better and did what we had to do against a very good football team.”

That “very good football team” was without Rice, its leading rusher, after its first offensive series of the contest.

The senior tailback, who entered the game with 1,449 yards rushing, finished the season with the same amount. He slipped on the notoriously slick Jesuit turf for no gain on his first two carries. The second carry, however, resulted in him re-injuring his sprained ankle, and he did not return. That left Montell Bland to shoulder the brunt of the running load alone. The two-way star finished with 79 yards on 20 carries.

Dauson Booker carried eight times for 78 yards, with 55 of those coming on two carries alone.

Bland, a four-year varsity starter who was part of three state title teams, never let it enter his mind that there wouldn’t be a fourth.

“That was never an option,” said Bland. “Not until the clock said zero.

“It’s definitely shocking.”

Central got the ball to start the second half, but a promising drive was snuffed out when Amadi went 80 yards for a pick-six to give the Marauders a 21-14 lead. Having to play catch-up seemed to unsettle the Raiders, and their defense was consistently gashed.

Jesuit gained 166 yards on the ground, with exactly half of those yards coming on three carries in the fourth quarter – one being a 39-yard TD run by Isaiah Rutherford, another a 21-yard run by Rutherford. He finished with 88 yards on 12 carries, while backfield mate Lorenzo Burkes totaled 30 yards on 11 attempts.

Should the Raiders fail to reach the D-II semis again next year, they’d be dropped back down to D-III.

This story was originally published November 19, 2016 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Central Catholic’s season ends without state title for first time in four years."