Oakdale-Central Catholic ticket a hot item

The ticket for Friday night’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division III football championship between Oakdale and Central Catholic was one of the hottest around.

Not only was the game a rematch of the Nov. 6 matchup between 9-0 teams – the Raiders won the first meeting 42-37 – but it pitted the three-time D-IV champ from 2012-14 (Central) against the reigning D-III title holder (Oakdale).

The section mandates that any team winning three consecutive titles must move up one division the following year. Now, with Central taking the D-III championship, the Raiders must compete in the D-II playoffs next season. They will remain there until they either fail to reach the semifinal round two consecutive years or miss out on the playoffs entirely.

Fans from Grace Davis, Modesto, Beyer, Ceres, Waterford, Pitman, Buhach Colony, Sonora, Orestimba, Sierra, Weston Ranch, Lathrop and Benicia, among others, were on hand.

By Friday morning, according to section director of communications Will DeBoard, 1,000 tickets had been sold online. That’s the most since the section began selling tickets online. By comparison, last year’s Oakdale-Inderkum D-III final sold 250 tickets online. The parking lot at Lincoln High school was declared full about an hour before game time. At kickoff, according to Bee Opinions Editor Mike Dunbar, there were still several hundred fans filing into the stadium.

Central Valley athletic director Greg Magni, who is given two passes annually by the section, was receiving text messages from old acquaintances he hadn’t heard from in years.

“I’d get these random texts, asking, ‘Hey, how’s it been?’ ” Magni said. “My response was: ‘I don’t have any passes.’ ”

Encore! Encore! – Friday’s rematch marked the first time in the careers of Oakdale coach Trent Merzon and Central Catholic’s Roger Canepa that either had faced an opponent for a second time in the same season.

It was obvious by the 21-7 final score that each was able to make adjustments from the first meeting, when the teams combined for 79 points.

Friday’s title game was a 7-7 tie until late in the third quarter.

Full Nelson – Darus Nelson, Oakdale’s explosive running back who has missed most of the season with an ACL injury, attempted to get cleared in time for Friday’s game.

“I was this close to suiting up,” Nelson said before the game, holding his thumb and forefinger about a half-inch apart. “But the doctor wouldn’t clear me.”

O Brother, Where Art Thou? – Central Catholic junior Cole Petlansky, brother of senior quarterback Hunter Petlansky, made his first start of the season. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound wide receiver tore his ACL at a summer camp in Oregon. The brother combo had a key connection during the Raiders’ go-ahead drive in the third quarter.

Mr. 2,000 – Raiders running back Justin Rice, The Bee’s 2014 Player of the Year, rushed for 168 yards against Oakdale and pushed his season total (2,157) over the 2,000-yard plateau for the second consecutive season. He becomes the first running back in Stanislaus District history to achieve that feat.

With the potential for two more games – the NorCal regional and a State Bowl Game – Rice has an outside chance to break the district’s all-time record of 2,781 yards, set by Ripon Christian’s Andrew Brown in 2013.

This story was originally published December 5, 2015 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Oakdale-Central Catholic ticket a hot item."