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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Friday, October 13, 2000
Eagles, Lions hunt district-opening win
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Oct. 13, 2000 -- Coming off games they'd like to forget, the Pecos
Eagles and Clint Lions will try for a fresh start tonight, when they meet
at Eagle Stadium in the District 2-4A opener for both teams.
The 2-3 Eagles host the 1-4 Lions in Pecos' 2000 homecoming game,
as both teams try to bounce back from bad performances their last time
out. Pecos was beaten two weeks ago in Monahans by a 34-8 final score,
while Clint comes in off a 46-7 home loss a week ago to El Paso Burges.
No team lost more starters to graduation a year ago than
Clint, which handed Pecos a 41-18 loss on the Lions' home field last
season. "We're a very young team. We start 6-7 sophomores on offense, and
while we've got some upperclassmen on defense, they never played a
whole lot last year," said Lions' coach Lloyd Smith.
Smith came over from Clint's sister school, Mountain View, where he
was offensive coordinator the past two seasons. And even with all the
young players, offense hasn't been the Lions' main problem.
Quarterback Tony Alvarado has completed nearly 50 percent of
his passes for 758 yards and six touchdowns this season,
while receiver Domingo Lozano is the No. 1 pass catcher in the state right
now, with 44 receptions for 492 yards and four touchdowns.
Eagles' coach Gary Grubbs said Alvarado "is pretty good… They
run a lot of outs and slants, mostly timing patterns. Nobody really gets
much pressure on him, because he takes a three-step drop."
Chris Franco caught seven passes a week ago to Lozano's five, after
he snared 17 passes in a loss to El Paso High the previous week.
"I'm pleased with what I'm seeing. This is a growing-up year and our
kids here are being asked to grow up faster than most sophomores," Smith said.
Meanwhile, another sophomore, Jesus Grijalva, is second
among district running backs with 380 yards, and Manny Estrada has gained
just under 200 yards while running the ball in only two games so far
this season.
"Estrada is a little bigger than the other, but I think No. 20 (Grijalva) is
a little quicker," Grubbs said. "I think they like to rest Estrada to play
him more on defense," he added, though Smith said an injury could
limit Grijalva's playing time tonight.
Defensively, the Eagles will be trying to improve on their
effort against Monahans, when they surrendered over 380 yards
and allowed three touchdown passes, including an 87-yarder on the
game's first play. Meanwhile, the Lions will be looking to making even
more adjustments on the defensive side, after allowing an average of 367
yards and 38 points in their first five games. Against Burges, they allowed
474 yards on defense, 299 of that on the ground.
"A lot of it has come on situation downs, third-and-short or
third-and-long," Smith said. "We're not finishing off plays and not
finishing off tackles," said Smith. "We're
not getting to the right spot at the right time."
However, the Lions did do a better job against El Paso Cathedral
than either Fabens, San Elizario or Mountain View did, losing in
the closing minutes, 30-27, and Smith went on to say, "I talked to the
coach at Bowie, Robert Gomez, and the coach at El Paso, Mickey
Rodgers, and they both said by far we were the most physical team they had
played so far
"We're trying to teach the kids to play a physical game, the way
it's supposed to be played," said Smith, who added linebackers David
Herrera and Ray Martinez have played well this season.
"They're a very aggressive team," said Grubbs. "They don't look
too bad on defense, but they tend to give the big play up."
The Eagles will be looking to make more plays on offense than they
did two weeks ago at Monahans. Pecos has struggled to move the ball in
three of their last four games since quarterback Alex Garcia suffered
a shoulder injury.
He came back and played some in the second half a week ago
when Richard Rodriguez was shaken up on a first half-ending run, and will
start tonight for the Eagles, while Rodriguez moves out to flanker.
The positions were reversed two weeks ago, when Rodriguez threw a
13-yard pass to Garcia for Pecos' lone touchdown.
"We're going to try and get Richard the ball some," said
Grubbs, while Daniel Terrazas and Matthew Levario will start at fullback
and tailback.
"Jason (Carrillo) is still a little nicked up, but he'll play some,
and we'll probably go with Daniel at tailback and Omar (Luna) at
fullback some," Grubbs said.
The bye week did give Pecos a chance to get a couple of
players healed up, especially on the offensive line. "Everybody but Sebero
(Jaquez) will be back," Grubbs said.
"He'll probably be out one more week,"
after suffering a partial tear in a knee ligament during practice in
late September.
Pecos sub-varsity teams get win, loss, tie
PECOS, Oct. 13, 2000 -- Pecos' junior high gold football teams didn't
allow a point over eight quarters against the Fort Stockton Panthers on
Thursday, while the Eagles' junior varsity didn't allow a point over a
half, but that came after a nightmare first two periods against the Crane
Golden Cranes.
The seventh grade `B' team played Fort Stockton to a scoreless tie,
and the eighth grade squad then defeated the Panthers for the third time
this season, this time by a 14-0 final score in games at the Crockett
Middle School field.
Over at Eagle Stadium, Crane rolled up 35 first half points on Pecos,
which was more than enough to survive a scoreless final two periods, as the
JV lost its fifth straight game, by a 35-12 final score.
Crane scored on each of its first four possessions to go up 29-0
before Pecos finally got on the scoreboard, on a two-yard run by Oscar
Parada. But the Cranes would add another score just before halftime, while
the Eagles' got the lone score of the second half, when Jesus
Orosco caught a deflected pass from quarterback John Parent.
The eighth graders scored the first two times they had the ball,
and ended the first half inside Fort Stockton's 1-yard-line, while
both teams were held scoreless over the final two periods. Quarterback
Greg Barrera had a 35-yard TD run and Gabriel Orona scored on a
25-yarder for the `B' team, which is now 4-1 on the season.
The seventh graders tied the Panthers after losing their season
opener at Fort Stockton back in September.
"We couldn't punch it in when we had the chance," said coach Robbie
Ortega, whose `A' team avenged an opening loss to the Panthers with a home
victory a week ago.
Tonight at 7:30 p.m., Pecos' varsity will try to avenge last year's loss
at Clint when they host the Lions in their 2000 homecoming game. With a
trip to Fabens coming up next week, tonight's game is a slightly bigger
one for the Eagles than for the Lions, who play their home opener next
week against San Elizario.
San Eli is also on the road tonight, against El Paso Mountain View,
while Fabens goes to Canutillo in the other District 2-4A opener.
San Elizario (3-2) at El Paso Mountain View
(2-3): The defending district champs were on a roll
until the last 5½ quarters of pre-district play. They had outscored
Deming, Santa Teresa and El Paso Bowie 117-6 over the previous 10-plus
quarters, when Bowie rallied for 26 late points and El Paso Cathedral followed
with a 32-7 win over San Elizario. Santiago Elizalde had a big night
running against Bowie, but the absence of Mike Tapia showed up in last
week's loss to the Fighting Irish.
Cathedral held San Eli to just 96 yards rushing while going for 213
in completing a sweep of `their' 2-4A schedule, having already beaten
Clint (30-27), Fabens (19-7) and Mountain View (27-20).
The Lobos played the Bowie role in that game, digging themselves
into a 20-0 hole they were unable to climb out of. But last week, despite
having their offense contained by El Paso Ysleta, Mountain View was able
to post a 7-6 homecoming win over the Indians. Josh Garcia ran for 131
yards and Arturo Muniz had a 20-yard pass to Ebert Munoz for the Lobos'
lone score, while the defense limited to Ysleta to only 52 yards rushing.
Fabens (3-2) at Canutillo (1-4): Vicente Macias lost the state
rushing leadership this past week, since the Wildcats were idle, after a
330-yard, eight-touchdown effort in their 68-0 win over Santa Teresa. The
Wildcats were able to get Macias over the 1,000-yard mark in rushing during
pre-district play, though it took a lot of effort despite the lopsided score
_ the next-leading rusher in the game for Fabens had 17 yards.
Quarterback Rigo Estrada and the other Wildcats players figure to
get more chances to handle the ball tonight at Canutillo, which has
lost four straight after blanking Santa Teresa in their opener,
21-0. Quarterback Jason Lopez has seven touchdown passes and 550 yards
in the Golden Eagles' first five games, with tight end Eddie Hita his
main target recently, but Canutillo is last in the district in rushing,
averaging just under 100 yard per game.
Fabens, meanwhile, is allowing just over that amount on the
ground so far and overall just over 180 yards per outing. Canutillo backs
Jesse Silvas and Noel Rios combined for 99 yards a week ago against
Bowie, when a bad punt snap and 100-yard interception return helped the
Bears score three times in the final period for a 27-13 victory.
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
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Copyright 2000 by Pecos Enterprise
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