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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Thursday, September 7, 2000
Whitharral seeks revenge on Bears
PECOS, Sept. 7, 2000 -- This is a game the Whitharral Panthers have been waiting a year to play.
The second-ranked Panthers have been waiting since Labor
Day weekend of 1999 to get another shot at the Balmorhea Bears,
after Balmorhea rallied from 20 points down to defeat them with a
"Hail Mary" pass on the final play of
their neutral-site game at Grady. Friday night, they'll get their chance,
while the Bears will have a shot to move a long ways up in the state
six-man football rankings, when they travel to Whitharral for a 7:30 p.m. game.
Isaiah Rodriguez hit Ryan Clark with a 25-yard touchdown pass
as time expired, then threw to Adriel Ramon for the
game-winning conversion as the Bears rallied from a 34-14 deficit in the third period
to win, 35-34. Rodriguez and Ramon are back this year for Balmorhea,
but Whitharral has all but one of their players returning from a year
ago, which helped get them a No. 2 ranking in the 2000 preseason
six-man l poll.
The Panthers didn't hurt their ranking any in their season
opener this past Friday, as they defeated Happy by a 52-0 final score, in a
game ended at halftime under the 45-point rule. Meanwhile, Balmorhea had
an impressive start to their season as well, posting a 48-0 victory at
home over Buena Vista in a game that ended under the 45-point rule
when Rodriguez ran the second half kickoff back for a touchdown.
Whitharral's Jared Dockery threw two first period touchdown passes
in last Friday's win, while Brandon Hoskins caught one of those
passes and added an eight-yard run in the opening period, which ended with
the Panthers holding a 38-0 lead.
Dockery was one of the main players in last year's game
for Whitharral, but the Bears' biggest problems came trying to
handle running back Steven Lopez, who ran for 100 yards and scored
three touchdowns in the first three periods, before being shut down by the
Bears during their fourth quarter rally.
Balmorhea was able to stay on the ground for the most part in
their opening win over Buena Vista, gaining 274 of their 319 yards on
the ground. Rodriguez and Roman ran for 92 and 91 yards respectively,
while Billy Lozano added 79 yards rushing for the Bears, while their
defense limited the Longhorns to just 48 yards on the ground and 70 yards overall
in the game.
Friday's game begins a rough four-week stretch for Balmorhea.
They'll take on Sands at Ackerly next week, and then host Dell City in a
non-district game before facing former District 8-A rival Grandfalls on
Sept. 29, to close out their pre-district schedule.
Eagles head to El Paso tourney
PECOS, Sept. 7, 2000 -- The Pecos Eagles' varsity tennis team will be
making the first of their three trips to the El Paso area during the fall
season this week, as they compete in the Americas High School Tournament
on Friday and Saturday.
Pecos will be facing mostly Class 5A schools and those from
District 1-4A on this trip, while their other two visits to El Paso will come next
month, for a District 2-4A match against Mountain View and for the
district tournament on Oct. 20-21.
Coach Bernadette Ornelas said 14 teams were entered in the
tournament, and the Eagles drew an opening round bye. "We'll play the winner
of El Paso High and El Paso Andress on Friday at 9 a.m.," she said.
Pecos is seeded fourth in the tournament field, behind the
host Trailblazers, El Paso Hanks and El Paso Burges. The teams will face
each other in singles and doubles matches, with play continuing through to
the title match on Saturday.
"Overall right now the team is looking pretty solid," Ornelas
said. "The kids are really looking forward to going to the tournament in El
Paso, because they know they'll get a lot of playing time on the court."
Pecos began its fall season two weeks ago by splitting their
matches against Seminole and Brownfield. The Eagles will have a slightly different
line-up in both the boys and girls brackets this weekend, and Ornelas said
she would take the Top 8 players both sides to El Paso for the tournament.
"Right now, we're having weekly challenge dates to determine
the seeding for all the players," she said. On the boys' side, freshman
Trent Graham will play at No. 1 seed this weekend, while junior Rebecca
Wein will be No. 1 seed for the girls in singles play at El Paso.
Graham and Bobby Sotelo will be paired at No. 1 doubles for the
boys, with Wein paired with Brenda Fuentes as No. 1 doubles.
Sub-varsity teams face Stockton
PECOS, Sept. 7, 2000 -- Week 2 of the 2000 season for five of Pecos' six
sub-varsity teams opens the same way as Week 1 did, though against a different
opponent and, in the case of Pecos' seventh grade football players, under
game conditions this time around.
Pecos' seventh graders will be on the road for the second
straight week, going to Fort Stockton for their official season
opener against the Panthers. The Eagles' freshmen will also be on the
road today at Fort Stockton, while Pecos' junior varsity and
eighth grade teams will play at home for the second week in a row, as
they host Fort Stockton. The junior high games will start at 4 and
5:30 p.m. while the freshman and JV contests are scheduled for 6
p.m. starts.
Pecos split four games last week with Kermit, while
the seventh graders won a pair of scrimmages against
the Yellowjackets, in what had been listed on the schedule as
the teams' season openers. The `B' team won by a 1-0 score and
the `A' team posted a 2-0 win, coach Robbie Ortega said.
The eighth graders split their season openers against
Kermit, winning the `B' game 8-0 while falling in the `A' contest by a
14-12 final score. The Jackets also won the season opening freshman
game in Pecos, 16-0, while the Eagles' JV took their opener over Kermit by
a 20-14 final score.
The Eagles' varsity will be on the road for the second
straight week, playing at Fort Stockton on Friday starting at 7:30 p.m.
Pecos kicked off its season by defeating Kermit last week, 25-6,
while Friday's game will be the 2000 season opener for the
Panthers, who beat the Eagles at home a year ago, 17-14.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
Copyright 2000 by Pecos Enterprise
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