Oakdale runs past Central Catholic for VOL title
The most highly anticipated football game of the season looked, for a quarter, like it was going to be one for the ages.
And then Oakdale High’s players found another gear, turning a close game into a rout, beating Central Catholic 48-28 to gain a share of the Valley Oak League title and the conference’s No. 2 playoff seed.
“It’s a blur,” Oakdale head coach Trent Merzon said while standing near The Corral’s south goal line, greeting well-wishers after the game. “The game’s a blur. It feels like we played three games tonight.”
Well, as far as points and yards allowed by a Central Catholic team, it’s about three games worth.
Oakdale rolled up 439 yards on the ground, get 236 from shifty tailback Darus Nelson, and 125 from ground-and-pound fullback Frankie Trent. Brock Whiting add 64 yards.
“They’re good, they’re really good,” said Raiders defensive coordinator Billy Hylla. “I don’t want to say they were more physical than we expected, it’s just that it’s hard to simulate in practice. To get our scout team to do that was a struggle.
“I don’t want to take anything away from them, but I thought we had a slight overall speed advantage. But football is about getting north and south and that’s what they do well.”
Central came out clicking and scored on a quick, four-play, 65-yard drive that was capped by Hunter Petlansky’s 37-yard TD pass to Justin Rice.
Oakdale fumbled the ball near midfield on its first possession but Tyler Flores picked off Petlansky at his own 47 to get the ball back.
The Mustangs wasted little time taking advantage of their good fortune. After a Trent dive for 3, Nelson refused to be tackled on a 50-yarder around the right end, making it 7-7 with less than six minutes gone in the game.
Rice quickly snatched any momentum Oakdale had gain when, on the first play of Central’s ensuing drive, he bolted through the left side of the line and ran 83 yards, virtually untouched, to make it 14-7.
The Oakdale sideline watched in stunned silence. Or maybe the players were just seething. The Mustangs answered with a 15-play drive that chewed up nearly five minutes, capping the march on Trent’s 1-yard dive into the end zone.
From there, however, it was a different ballgame.
Oakdale outscored the Raiders 21-0 in the second quarter – getting a 12-yard TD run from Nelson and Adam Olsen TD passes to Greg Hickman (22 yards) and Bobby Depuy (12 yards) – to take a commanding 35-14 cushion into the locker room.
The Mustangs picked up where they left off, opening the third quarter with a 10-play, 79-yard drive that was capped by another Trent 1-yard blast into the paint.
The Raiders showed their first signs of life after about 20 minutes of game time, when Rice (6 carries, 169 yards) duplicated his earlier touchdown with an 80-yard jaunt to make it 42-21.
Rice had just one carry in the second half, as Oakdale turned CC into a one-dimensional, predictable offense.
“That was our whole game plan, to make (Petlansky) uncomfortable,” said defensive end Landen Ichord.
Petlansky completed 12 of 18 passes for 186 yards and two TDs, but he was picked twice and spent a great portion of the night eluding Ichord and Co.
This story was originally published November 7, 2014 at 11:47 PM with the headline "Oakdale runs past Central Catholic for VOL title."