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Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Bears go to air in scrimmage in 3-3 tie
The Balmorhea Bears traded scores with the Midland Trinity Chargers on Friday in Balmorhea, in the Bears’ final pre-season scrimmage, as they used their passing game to counter the Chargers ground attack in a 3-3 scrimmage tie.
“They have a running back from last year who scored 40 touchdowns and ran for 2,600 yards,” Bears’ coach Adolfo Garcia said. “He’s a tough, tough running back, but I thought we did very well against him. He was mainly their only weapon.”
Trinity had scrimmaged Grady and Whiteface the previous weekend, scoring 10 touchdowns while allowing just two, so Garcia was also happy with his team’s offense, even though they had the same number of TDs as in their first scrimmage against Fort Davis.
“We looked a lot better on offense the second time around,” Garcia said. “In passing, we did really well, while our running still needs some work.”
“I think we only had two sustained drives, and the did not finish in touchdowns,” Garcia said. Ryan Woodruff and Michael Hernandez scored on a pair of long touchdown passes, while Benjamin Orozco had Balmorhea’s only rushing touchdown in the game.
The Bears’ coach singled out Russell Garlick and Justin Machuca for their play on defense against the Chargers, who advanced to the TCAL finals before losing last season. “Our defense did a real good job again.”
The Bears won’t open their season during the Zero Week this year, as they’ll wait until the official Week 1 for their opener, at Whitherral. However, Garcia said Balmorhea’s junior varsity team will open their season this coming Friday against the Marathon Mustangs, who they scrimmaged on Friday.
Garcia said the Bears’ JV lost by a 3-2 score to the Mustangs’ varsity squad. Balmorhea’s varsity will play at Marathon on Oct. 14, in a District 6-A six-man game.
Eagles’ ground attack rolls in scrimmage win
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
The offense results were the same for the Pecos Eagles’ football team in their second pre-season scrimmage as they had been in their first scrimmage, while the defense fared a little better against the Coahoma Bulldogs on Friday night than they had the previous week against the Andrews Mustangs.
The Eagles, who scored on a long drive with their first team against Andrews, then used a long run to score with their second team in an eventual 2-2 tie, did the same thing on Friday night against Coahoma at the start of the varsity scrimmage on the Bulldogs’ home field. Meanwhile, the defense, which allowed two passing touchdowns against the Mustangs, kept Coahoma from moving inside the 35 yard line all night, though they did suffer a setback when senior linebacker Josh Payan suffered a dislocated knee at the end of the second series.
“It hurts to lose Josh. He made some play,” said Eagles’ coach Patrick Willis “It’s a big loss to lose him, but we will survive.”
Pecos allowed just 109 total yards to Coahoma during the 25 play controlled scrimmage and the 12 minute quarter, while the Eagles’ offense wound up with 245 yards, about the same as in their 80-play scrimmage against Andrews. They picked up their first 70 yards on a 12-play drive to open the scrimmage, all on the ground and all on runs by either Eddie Vela or Luis Ortega.
Ortega ran for 26 yards one play after an eight-yard run by Vela netted Pecos a first down. Vela would then pick up two yards on a quarterback keeper off a 4th-and-1 play at the Coahoma 4-yard-line, before Ortega went up the middle on the next play for the score.
Pecos’ second TD came after a couple of sloppy plays by the second team unit at the outset of their series. A couple of motion calls and a pair of bad deep snaps out of the shotgun formation didn’t count in the controlled portion of the scrimmage, and were followed by a 15-yard pass from Miguel Estrada to Donnie Myles, and then a 42-yard quarterback keeper around the left end by Estrada for the touchdown.
Pecos was 5-for-10 for 57 yards through the air, but other than a 14-yard pass from Vela to Andrew Grant during the timed portion of the scrimmage and a long pass attempt to Grant in the closing seconds of play, all the throws by Vela and Estrada were short dump off passes or screen plays.
“We ran the ball like I wanted us to, but we didn’t pass much because they were running a 3-3 stunt and we haven’t worked much on it,” Willis said. “My biggest thing is I don’t want us to get into the habit of throwing interceptions and letting go of the football.”
Turnovers and penalties did in the Eagles last season, and both did hurt Pecos during the timed portion of the scrimmage. After picking up three first downs, a 12-yard run by Ortega was wiped out by a holding call, and two plays later the junior was hit and fumbled after a 10-yard run, with Coahoma recovering at their own 31-yard-line.
Pecos held the Bulldogs to one first down after that, and following a punt picked up four more first downs before a seven-yard run by Myles to the Coahoma 10-yard-line was nullified by an illegal block. The Bulldogs then stopped the Eagles on downs and took over with just 22 seconds left in the quarter, then fumbled the ball back to Pecos on a 10-yard run on a 4th-and-10 play as time expired.
“I thought our kids were physical out there and did a good job going to the ball,” said Willis, as Coahoma managed just seven first downs and 71 yards rushing on 28 attempts. Pecos finished with 16 first downs and 188 yards rushing on 30 tries, with Ortega running for 92 yards on 12 carries.
The Eagles also defeated Coahoma by two touchdowns in their scrimmage a year ago, but had no sustained drives, scoring on three long passes, while allowing the Bulldogs to get inside their 25 yard line five times, though just one turned into a score.
Pecos’ junior varsity team allowed Coahoma to drive deep into their territory twice in their scrimmage on Friday, but used a pair of fumble recoveries to come up with a 0-0 tie. Earlier in the afternoon, the Eagles’ ninth graders scored a 1-0 scrimmage victory over the Bulldogs. Hector Ramirez had the game’s lone touchdown.
The Eagles’ varsity will return home this Friday for the 2005 season opener against the Midland Christian Mustangs. Pecos edged Midland Christian at home two years ago, but was beaten last year 31-14 by the Mustangs, who went on to win the TAPPS Division II state football title.
Girls have 2-4 weekend in Sandhills matches
The first tournament of the season for the Pecos Eagles volleyball team showed the Eagles have a few areas they’ll need to improve on, if they hope to get back into the playoffs in October after a one-year absence.
Pecos went 2-4 at the Sandhills Tournament in Monahans, losing their first two matches to Dalhart and Lubbock Christian, then defeating El Paso Bowie and El Paso Riverside before falling in their final two matches on Saturday to El Paso Montwood and then to District 3-3A rival Presidio, the team that knocked the Eagles out of a playoff berth last fall.
Pecos began play with a 25-15, 25-23 loss to Dalhart, then lost 25-14, 25-20 to Lubbock Christian before coming back on Friday to edge Bowie, 23-25, 25-20, 27-25. On Saturday they started off with a 26-24, 25-10 win over Riverside, but then fell to Montwood, 25-13, 25-14, and lost to their district rival, 25-14, 25-19.
In Friday’s opening matches, coach Debbie Garcia was happier about her team’s results against Dalhart than she was with the later loss to Lubbock Christian.
“They did play really, really well,” she said of the match against the Wolves, who would go on to defeat Andrews for third place in the tournament on Saturday. “Against Lubbock Christian we came out and had too many errors. It wasn’t their big hits, it was our little errors in the middle.”
“We did come back and play well against El Paso Bowie,” Garcia said, as the Eagles rallied in the seventh place game of their bracket to defeat the Bears.
On Saturday, Pecos outlasted El Paso Riverside in the first game of their noon quarterfinal match in the consolation bracket, getting a block by Bianca Baeza on a tip attempt by Riverside’s Cassie Diaz to get the win. They then took advantage of the Rangerettes errors at the end of Game 2 to go on an 11-0 run for the victory.
However, against Montwood, it would be the Eagles who would run into second game problems with unforced errors, and that continued into their loss in the consolation bracket’s third place match against Presidio, which lost to Lubbock Christian in their semifinal match.
Montwood’s Vanessa Romero led a multiple attack against Pecos’ front line, which had problems getting up to block the Rams’ spikers. The Eagles did get some kills in the early going from Brittany Rodriguez and Adriana Armendariz, before a kill by Romero in Game 1 broke a 10-10 tie and sent Montwood on a 15-3 run, and then started Game 2 with a 14-4 run before Pecos straightened things out, but they were only able to trade points the rest of the way.
In the loss to Presidio, the Eagles had their problems with hitter Yasmine Herrera, but it was more unforced errors that allowed the Blue Devils to pull away from Pecos in both matches.
Monahans ended up winning their own tournament, defeating Lubbock Trinity in the finals after downing Dalhart in the semifinals on Saturday. For Pecos, the 2-4 weekend left them with a 4-8 season record going into their Tuesday night match at Van Horn against the Eagles. Van Horn lost in the consolation bracket’s consolation final to El Paso Ysleta at the Sandhills Tournament on Saturday.
Following their trip to Van Horn, Pecos will host the Cantaloupe Classic Tournament this Friday and Saturday at the Pecos High School gym. The Eagles’ junior varsity and freshman teams will also compete in the tournament.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 432-445-5475, FAX 432-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
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