Stanislaus District’s Got Talent: Star rusher 100% in time for key league game

Featured Player: Justin Rice

Justin Rice will be featured throughout the series. He was the 2014 and 2015 Stanislaus District Player of the Year, held Central Catholic rushing records and played both offense and defense on state championship teams. After a decorated high school career, Rice played Division I football at Fresno State, Arkansas State and Utah State, starting at running back then switching to linebacker. After college, he played in the Canadian Football League in 2022 before a meniscus injury three games into the year ended his season. Rice returned to the States and is now a pilot.

Finally ready for action

Four weeks after missing his first high school game, Justin Rice finally felt like himself.

The senior running back/linebacker was poised to dominate in his final high school season at Central Catholic, but through five games, he had just five rushing touchdowns and less than 500 rushing yards.

He was nursing the worst ankle sprain of his career and though he tried to play through it, he wasn’t himself.

The Raiders were loaded with star power, but if they were going to reach their full potential, they would need their bell cow.

“It was three weeks of going to physical therapy every day,” Rice recalled.

But he was working tirelessly to get back. That Friday’s game was against Manteca, one of the Valley Oak League heavyweights that sat near the top of the league standings for years. And the Raiders were the new kids on the block.

“We were disrespected by the Manteca’s and Oakdale’s because they were like ‘Why are they in our league?’” Rice said. “That’s why we went into those types of games with a little extra motivation.”

The weeks of extra rehab, training and mental reps paid off.

Central Catholic rushed for four touchdowns and Rice had three of them.

“That was the first game where I started to feel back to myself after that ankle injury,” he said.

The star’s breakout performance also resulted in 28 carries and 285 yards, both were season highs at the time. It was his first game with three touchdowns that season. He got his feet wet two weeks before with a 154-yard, two touchdown game against Lathrop and against Kimball the week before the Manteca showdown with two more rushing scores.

But after that Manteca performance, which was the driving force behind a 28-6 win, Rice was all the way back.

“It was a combination of healing and I had got my legs back the game before,” Rice explained, “so kind of just the perfect storm for a good time to come back and be healthy against a really good team.”

Something to prove to the league

The 2015 season was just Central Catholic’s second in the hard-nosed, talented Valley Oak League, taking a step up in competition after finishing a perfect 12-0 combined in their last two seasons in the Western Athletic Conference (2012, 2013). In 2014, their first season in the VOL, the Raiders went 5-2 and finished third. That season, their league losses came to Sierra and Oakdale.

In 2015, the Raiders, Mustangs and Buffaloes were in a heated battle for the league’s top spot. Each team entered Friday, Oct. 16 at 6-0 overall and unbeaten in league play. When the Raiders and Buffaloes matched up, those three unbeaten records of the “Big Three” would turn to just two at the end of a hard-hitting and fast-playing competitive gridiron battle.

“VOL-wise, it was our first test and we knew going into it we had to show up for this,” Rice said. “(Holy Bowl rival) St. Mary’s was a whole different story with that rivalry but as far as the VOL, this was our first test of ‘How good are we?’”

Manteca was dealing with narratives of its own. There were rumblings across the area that the two-quarterback system the Buffaloes were running would not work. Well, with a six rushing touchdown effort in a 43-8 trouncing of city rival Sierra the week prior, Manteca essentially put an end to that chatter.

During the week, Central Catholic was “dialed in” according to Rice.

There was no Madden Mobile talk, no locker room shenanigans. They didn’t need coach Roger Canepa to lay into them for not being ready to play.

When the Raiders needed to focus, they did.

It was their first real challenge in VOL play and the team showed up. Though they scored just 28 points, they consistently kept Manteca’s offense at bay. The Raiders scored seven points in each quarter and held Manteca to just six second quarter points.

“It was a war of attrition,” Rice said, “it was just a super physical game and then towards the end, we found out who the tougher team was because we started breaking longer and longer runs and their offense kind of slowed down and wasn’t as productive.”

In addition to Rice’s three rushing touchdowns, quarterback Hunter Petlansky rushed for a score. It was an all-around dominant performance. The offense produced 410 total yards and held the Buffaloes to 186.

Mission accomplished. Point proven.

“We came into that game kind of wanting to take over the VOL that year and let everyone know pretty early that we were gonna run through that league.”

Wins bring momentum

It was their lowest scoring game of the season at the time, but that did not matter.

The win injected confidence into the team.

They knocked off Manteca. They proved they belonged. Once again, they silenced the doubters. The Holy Bowl victory was big, this one was huge. It kept them in the running for their first ever Valley Oak League title and kept the perfect season intact.

“We kind of knew we were going to be a force,” Rice said.

And it got the eventual 2015 Bee Player of the Year back on track.

In the next two league games, the Raiders plowed through reigning co-league champion Sierra (51-0) and East Union (42-13), holding their sixth and seventh straight opponents under 15 points.

There was not much time for celebration after the 29-point East Union win as a rival waited in the wings: Oakdale.

This story was originally published December 7, 2025 at 6:00 AM.

Quinton Hamilton

The Modesto Bee

Quinton Hamilton covers high school sports for The Modesto Bee. He is a Southern California native and received his bachelor’s degree from Pacific Union College and a master’s in journalism from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. Quinton has worked at the Record-Journal in Meriden and helped on projects at Hearst Connecticut.