Modesto’s Central Catholic beats Sonora for third straight section championship

Two years ago, Central Catholic defeated Escalon by 42 points to win the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV football final, on its way to a state championship. Last year, the Raiders made it two in a row when they beat Hilmar by two touchdowns on their way to another state crown.

Friday night, the final margin was even closer, as CC defeated Sonora 42-35 to claim a third consecutive D-IV crown that all but assures the Raiders a berth in a Northern California regional bowl game against an opponent to be determined.

Next year, things stand to get even tougher for the Raiders, who will face a mandatory promotion to the Division III playoff bracket.

The Sac-Joaquin Section mandates that if any team should win three consecutive titles, it gets bumped up a division the following year.

But first things first … Raiders coach Roger Canepa wants to enjoy this one for a while.

“I’ll enjoy it tonight,” said Canepa, whose team is 39-6 over the past three seasons. “But I’ll probably go scout Modesto Christian (today), because that allows me to see two teams we might be playing.”

According to the current D-IV NorCal bowl rankings compiled by Cal-Hi Sports, Central Catholic is ranked No. 1, ahead of No. 3 Capital Christian and No. 5 Modesto Christian, the teams that play today at 6 p.m. at the Grape Bowl in Lodi for the D-VI title. The MC-CC winner could very well end up being Central Catholic’s opponent on Dec. 12.

“I haven’t even had time to enjoy this win and I’m trying to figure out who we’re going to play next,” said Canepa.

The Raiders had to work hard to put away the Wildcats.

Holding a 35-28 lead with seconds to play in third quarter, Central faced fourth-and-2 from its own 37. Canepa opted to go for it.

“We were having trouble stopping them,” said Canepa. “I didn’t want to give them the ball back.”

The Raiders were mainly having trouble with senior Billy Kiriluk, a 5-10, 190-pound load who just happens to be Canepa’s nephew. Kiriluk carried the ball 24 times for 113 yards.

“That guy is a load and ever since camp, I knew I was I going to have problems with him,” said CC linebacker Kekupa’a Freehauf, referring to the shared summer camp workouts between Sonora and Central. “I knew this was going to be a long night.”

If the Raiders had trouble with Kiriluk, the Wildcats had bigger problems with Central tailback Justin Rice.

On fourth-and-2, Canepa dialed Rice’s number and the junior responded with a refuse-to-be-tackled 17-yard gain that allowed the Raiders to run nine more time-consuming plays. The drive ended with a missed field goal attempt of 37 yards by Bryce Wade, but Central’s defense forced its second three-and-out of the night and got the ball back with less than six minutes to play.

Five plays later – one a 37-yard gain by Rice – quarterback Hunter Petlansky went in for his second 1-yard plunge of the game to make it 42-28.

Kiriluk added a late TD for the Wildcats, but it was just window dressing.

Prior to Friday’s championship, Sonora coach Bryan Craig said his team must tackle well to have a shot at beating the champs.

For much of the game, the Wildcats did. But too often, Rice broke free for big chunks of yardage.

“We didn’t tackle well but I’m not going to take anything away from No. 2 (Rice),” said Craig, whose team had won 11 consecutive games since dropping the season opener 28-14 to Oakdale. “That kid is talented.”

Rice finished the game with 204 yards on 22 carries, with two receptions for 64 yards and two TDs.

“The toss was really working,” Rice said of the fourth-down play. “Their ends were really crashing hard. We thought if we could get around their ends, we could outrun them.”

Both teams essentially traded touchdowns in the first half, with Central Catholic scoring an all four of its five possessions (the fifth came seconds before halftime and the Raiders merely took a knee), while Sonora scored on three of its five and trailed 28-21 at the half.

Three times in the first half, after the Wildcats had scored to snag some momentum, the Raiders quickly swiped it right back.

Sonora marched 63 yards on five plays in about two minutes to jump ahead 7-0 on Wyatt Faughnan’s 12-yard run, but Justin Rice went 59 yards for a score on Central’s first play from scrimmage. Later, when the Wildcats tied it 14-14 on a Kahale Warring’s 21-yard reception from Sam Page, the Raiders did it again on their first play. This time, senior Jared Rice got behind his defender and hauled in a 42-yard strike from quarterback Petlansky.

Bradley Canepa, the Central Catholic coach’s nephew, scored on a 2-yard burst to pull Sonora back into a tie at 21-all, but the Raiders went back on top when Justin Rice took a swing pass around the left end, cut back to the middle and then crossed the goal line near the right pylon to make it 28-21 two minutes before intermission.

This story was originally published November 28, 2014 at 11:48 PM with the headline "Modesto’s Central Catholic beats Sonora for third straight section championship."