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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Thursday, October 19, 2000
Eagles look to contain Macias, Wildcats
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Oct. 19, 2000 -- Vicente Macias ran for a lot of yards and a lot of
touchdowns three weeks ago -- even more than Daniel Terrazas ran for last
week in the Pecos Eagles' win over the Clint Lions.
And Macias ran well last year when the Eagles faced the
Wildcats in Fabens.
But what he didn't run for against Pecos a year ago was a
touchdown, and that's something the Eagles' defense will try to do again
Friday night, when Pecos travels to Fabens for an 8:30 p.m. game.
The Wildcats have a new stadium and are trying to develop a
new winning attitude behind Macias, who ran for 330 yards and
eight touchdowns in a 68-0 win over Santa Teresa, N.M. back on Sept. 29.
Last week, Fabens won their first district game in two years, beating
Canutillo 27-13 as Macias scored two touchdowns and gained 153 yards.
"We've been staying on the ground only because that's
what teams have given us," said Fabens coach Ronnie Hernandez,
whose team is 4-2 overall on the season. "We have a pretty decent passing
attack, and I'm sure on Friday night coach (Gary) Grubbs will be playing
about eight on the line to stop Macias, so we've been working on the
passing attack this week to try and air it out at times."
So far in 2000, Macias has run for 1,176 yards and 17 touchdowns,
and while much of that yardage has come against weak opposition, the
junior did gain 244 yards in a loss to El Paso Parkland, which is considered the
top Class 4A team in the El Paso area.
His only sub-100 yard game was 48 yards in a 19-7 loss to El
Paso Cathedral. "He just didn't get the ball that much. In all the other games,
he's gotten the ball about 30 times," Grubbs said.
"I think we're a little better than last year," said Hernandez. "We
had a hard time as far as injuries and a couple of bad breaks, and we were
a really young team. We basically had sophomores and juniors playing
for us, so it was a learning experience.
"We were 0-5 in district, and when you're 0-5 the coach usually
wants the season to end, but I told the kids last year it was one of the few times
I wanted it to continue, because I could see how we were
improving," Hernandez said.
Last season in Fabens, Macias ran for 127 yards on 17 carries, but
never got into the end zone against Pecos. He came close twice, but was
caught from behind on a 56-yard run, then was tripped up by Terrazas at the
one yard line on the final play of the game, as the Eagles scored a 6-0
overtime victory.
Aside from Macias, Fabens has fullback Beto Nunez and
quarterback Rigo Estrada returning. Estrada started strong this season, but
has struggled the past couple of weeks throwing the ball. He didn't have
to throw in the rout of Santa Teresa, but was 0-for-5 with two
interceptions against Canutillo last week.
Hernandez said Estrada hurt his leg against Canutillo,
which hampered his ability to run the offense. "He was hobbled
pretty much. He couldn't roll out and throw the ball," said Hernandez, who
added the senior is much better this week.
"They were a running team in the videos we watched," said
Grubbs. "They weren't real effective throwing the football, but they have
the potential to throw it."
"The thing that scares me is when he hits the fullback in the flat
when he rolls out on the bootleg or the waggle. But I think if we can
keep them in front of us we won't get burned," Grubbs said.
Against Pecos a year ago, Estrada was 10-for-23 for 84 yards, with
his longest pass a 20-yarder to Alozno Favela, who has moved from tight
end to wide receiver this season and leads Fabens in receiving with 14
catches for 196 yards and three touchdowns.
"He's been out the last couple of weeks," Hernandez said, as the
6-foot-5 receiver was being tested for hepatitis. "Last week was his
first week back and he looked a little sluggish and dropped a couple
of balls he should have caught, but we really couldn't throw him the
ball because Rigo couldn't roll out."
But while Macias and the offense has gotten most of the press,
Fabens defense comes in ranked No. 1 in District 2-4A, allowing only
180 points per game, and came up big last week against Canutillo. The
Wildcats picked off quarterback Julian Lopez three times and recovered
four fumbles, with Turi Cleto returning one of those 30 yards for Fabens'
first touchdown of the night.
"They've got a solid defense with good speed. Their big tackle
(Josh) Rosas does a good job playing defense and offense," Grubbs said
"Rosas is the best defensive and offensive tackle in the league
right now. When he blocks, he blocks," Hernandez said.
Grubbs said linebacker Joel Orozco looked good on the tapes they
saw, while Hernandez said Juan Trevizo has been the Wildcats' top linebacker.
"He's only 165 pounds, but he goes all out," the Wildcats'
coach said. "Joel is not bad. He's a hard-nosed kid, but Juan is the heart
of our defense."
Pecos' defense failed to come up with a turnover for the second
game in a row last week, but that didn't matter after the offense had
its biggest night since the mid-1970s, rolling up 541 yards in their 46-7
win over Clint. Terrazas ran for 272 of those yards and scored
three touchdowns, while Omar Luna ran for 113 yards and two scores, all of
that after he replaced injured fullback Jason Carrillo in the lineup.
Carrillo went down without being touched on a 33-yard pass
reception last week, suffering a hip muscle injury. "He'll be out until he's
fully recovered," Grubbs said, which means more double-duty for Luna
and Terrazas, who'll also start at linebacker.
Pecos did get three players, Jaime Herrera, Ricky Plummer and
Peter Juarez back off the ineligible list, and will get Sebero Jaquez and
Pifi Montoya off the injured list for Friday.
Grubbs said Plummer would start at cornerback and Montoya at
end, while. "Jaime's going to play a lot on defense and special teams, but I
don't know about Peter. He hurt his shoulder in practice on Tuesday,"
he said.
Pecos seeks district title at tourney
PECOS, Oct. 19, 2000 -- Having a District 2-4A fall team tennis tournament
worked to the Pecos Eagles' advantage last season. Today, they'll try to
make sure it doesn't work against them, as the top-seeded Eagles compete
in the district tournament at San Elizario High School.
Neither San Eli nor Canutillo have tennis teams, and the three
other district schools _ Fabens, Clint and El Paso Mountain View —
voted two years ago to hold a tournament after the regular fall dual
meets, something Pecos never had to deal with when they were a part of
District 4-4A.
The district tournament didn't change the results in 1998, as
Pecos and Clint were seeded first and second and finished 1-2 in
the tournament. But last year, the Eagles lost their dual meets to both
Clint and Fabens, but then came back to down the Wildcats in the
tournament to earn a second straight trip to regionals.
Last year's tournament was a hectic one for the Eagles; since
it was the same day regional band competition was held in
Odessa. After beating Fabens to earn a playoff spot, several of the
Pecos players were hustled off in a van and driven 250 miles to Odessa in time
to march at Ratliff Stadium. As a result, Clint beat the Eagles in
the tournament finals, 14-4.
Today, when the Eagles took the court at 9 a.m. to face Mountain
View, they were again t he No. 1 seed, thanks to their 10-9 win at home
last Saturday over Clint. The Lions, meanwhile, will be in Fabens to
face the Wildcats in the other semifinal match
Despite the close score against Clint, coach Bernadette Ornelas
said, "I believe we're going to face Fabens in the finals," after the Wildcats
down the Lions in their match two weeks ago.
Pecos swept all their girls matches from Clint while the boys were
swept by the Lions, with the different being a forfeit win for the Eagles in
mixed doubles. "As far as scoring is concerned, we still have a few
things we need to work on," Ornelas said on Monday. "On the boys' side we
had three split set matches we lost, so we have to work on improving our
results in those long-distance matches."
This year, the district tournament was to have fallen on the
same weekend as the area marching contest at nearby Socorro
Stadium. But while the stadium and the tennis courts are only 10 miles apart,
Ornelas said the tennis tournament was moved up from Saturday
to Thursday to avoid any conflicts for the Eagle band members on
the tennis team, along with others playing for Clint, Fabens
and Mountain View today.
The top two finishers will advance to the Region
I-4A tournament, scheduled for Oct. 27-28 at Wichita Falls.
Swimmers host Stockton in dual meet
PECOS, Oct. 19, 2000 -- The Pecos Eagles' swimming team will host their
second dual meet of the season tonight, when they face the Fort Stockton
Panthers starting at 6 p.m. at the Pecos High School swimming pool. It's the third dual of the season for the Eagles, who begin
invitational competition next weekend with a trip to the Big Spring Invitational,
which will also be the site of January's District 3-4A swim meet. Coach
Terri Morse said one meter diving would kick things off, with the 200
medley relay to follow at about 6:15 or 6:30 p.m.
The Eagle boys have swept both their meets so far this season
against Class 5A El Paso Montwood and Odessa Permian, while the girls
lost to the Rams in El Paso while defeating the Panthers in Pecos
on Oct. 5.
Morse said she again would not have a full squad for today's
meet because of other sports. "There are some JV football players, and
tennis and volleyball who won't be here," she said.
As for the others, Morse said she wants to look at some of
here swimmers in different events against the Panthers.
"A few of them are switched up," she said. "Fort
Stockton doesn't have quite as many people as the others had, so I'm going
to look at some people, and try and get some times on some others
and see about filling some holes in some areas.
"I still think we'll do well tonight," Morse said.
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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