Oakdale runs wild again to beat Rio Linda 41-14 in D-III semifinal

At The Corral, beauty isn’t in the eye of the beholder, it’s in the belly of the running back.

Any time the Oakdale High offense clicks the way it did in Friday night’s 41-14 handling of Rio Linda, offensive coordinators and line coaches swoon.

But while advancing to a Sac-Joaquin Section title game for the 12th time in school history, what the Mustangs are doing isn’t beautiful in the modern sense of the game. It’s not a no-huddle, hurry-up, spread-the-field game where coaches are aiming to dazzle with creativity.

No, when a team grinds the clock and the opponent with 77 rushing plays to gain 532 yards, the signature at the bottom of the canvas is more likely to resemble that of George Halas than Chip Kelly.

“I think it’s beautiful football,” said Oakdale coach Trent Merzon, whose team will take a 12-1 record into next week’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division III title game against top-seeded Inderkum of Sacramento at Stockton’s Lincoln High School.

“A lot of teams don’t do what we do anymore,” Merzon said. “But I won’t ever, ever, ever get tired of watching physical football teams run the ball. I know it’s a dying fad because the no-huddle is a lot sexier than what we do, but we’re pretty good at what we do.”

The Mustangs boast three 1,000-yard rushers this season, and all three gained more than 100 yards and found the end zone against the Knights (10-2).

Frankie Trent carried 25 times for 159 yards and three touchdowns, Darus Nelson had 102 yards and a score on 18 carries, and Brock Whiting – who needed 170 yards to join the other two in the 1,000-yard club – gained 191 on 17 carries and scored on a 55-yard run.

“It’s awesome to have three 1,000-yard backs,” Whiting said. “Takes a lot of pressure off one guy, that’s for sure.”

All three backs reached the end zone in the first half, with Trent carrying two Rio Linda defenders across the goal line with 12 seconds left to give Oakdale a 33-6 halftime lead.

By intermission the Mustangs gained 407 rushing yards, which made it pretty obvious what Rio Linda was going to need to do in the second half.

“There are a lot of bodies in the box,” Merzon said. “Everybody crowds the box against us and we still manage to put a body on a body.”

With the Knights kicking off and needing a quick three-and-out to have a chance to get back into the game, Oakdale instead embarked on a 16-play, 76-yard drive that consumed seven minutes, 46 seconds.

Oakdale outgained Rio Linda 542-234 and held Knights running back Marcel Brown to 16 yards on nine carries. Brown entered the game 41 rushing yards short of 2,000 for the season.

Yes, three backs generally are better than one.

“We can get caught up in those three guys being special, because they are, but they’re special because the other eight guys out there are doing their jobs,” Merzon said.

The previous 11 trips to a section final yielded only three titles for Oakdale – in 1996, 2007 and 2012. This time they’ll be meeting an Inderkum team that celebrated Halloween with a 62-21 victory over this same Rio Linda squad.

“I’m sure Inderkum is waiting for us and they’re unbelievable,” Merzon said. “We’ve seen them on film and we know what we’re getting into.

“We’re going to do what we do, and if it’s enough, great. If it’s not then we’ll collect our gear. We’ll have an awful lot to celebrate at the end of this season ... whenever it ends.”

This story was originally published November 28, 2014 at 10:58 PM with the headline "Oakdale runs wild again to beat Rio Linda 41-14 in D-III semifinal."