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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Thursday, November 8, 2001
Youth football benefit Sunday to finance trips
A benefit hamburger sale will be held this Sunday in the Wal-Mart parking
lot on South Cedar Street to help fund trips to tournaments for three Pecos
Eagle Pee-Wee football league teams.
Michael Benavides said the burgers, chips and drink plates would be sold
outside Wal-Mart beginning at 11:30 a.m. Sunday for $3.50 apiece, with the
money going to offset the costs of the trips to the tournaments. He said
the Cowboys and Vikings, who tied for first place in the fifth and sixth
grade division this season, would be going to a tournament in Ft. Stockton,
beginning on Nov. 17.
Also scheduled to compete in a tournament are the 3-4 grade division winners,
the Colts. "We're not sure where they're going to play in a tournament yet.
Maybe Odessa," Benavides said.
Bears, Eagles play for district title
The Balmorhea Bears will be trying to capture their first district football
title in seven years on Friday, but they'll have to do it on the road in
Sanderson against the undefeated Eagles, beginning at 7:30 p.m.
The Bears, 6-2 and winners of five straight games, will take on the 9-0
Eagles, who are trying to win their third straight District 8-A six man championship
and are ranked No. 4 this week in the state six-man football poll
Balmorhea hasn't lost since falling to No. 10-ranked Trent (9-0) back
in September, 48-24. Along with their loss to Trent, the Bears' only other
defeat came at the hands on No. 1-ranked and 9-0 Whitharral, 50-17. Their
current win streak started with a 46-33 victory on Sept. 28 against Sands,
the team the loser of Friday's game will face in the bi-district round of
the playoffs.
"The loser will play Sands. The winner I don't know," said Bears' coach
Ennis Erickson. "Loop and Buena Vista play each other (Friday), and if Loop
wins they're in, but if Buena Vista wins it will go down to a points system
tie-breaker. Buena Vista can still win on Friday but not make the playoffs."
The Bears were idle this past Friday thanks to their forfeit victory over
Sierra Blanca, while Sanderson was winning at Marathon, 66-18. Last season,
the Eagles closed out District 8-A six-man play with a 58-34 win at Balmorhea.
"They're pretty much the same overall. In reality they've had some people
changed from last year, but everything else is pretty much the same. They've
got about the same quickness and the same size."
John Benavides has been the Eagles' top rusher this season, and Sanderson
has been able to stick mostly to the running game in their victories.
The Bears, meanwhile, have had to go to the air at time this season, especially
in the loss to Trent, when injuries and ejections left Balmorhea with no
running backs. Since that time, the Bears have gotten several players back,
and Erickson said, "In reality everybody's about as healthy as they've been
in a while."
A win would give Balmorhea their first district title since 1994, when
they advanced to the six-man state semifinals. "The kids are taking this
seriously. They're ready for the challenge," Erickson said.
Eagles hope added size cuts down recent woes
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
For the first time in a long time, the Pecos High School gym won't
be "The Land of the Smurfs" this basketball season.
The Pecos Eagles' boys basketball team has never been blessed with a lot
of height over the years, even during the seasons they were posting winning
records and competing for playoff berths. But the past few seasons the Eagles'
situation has gone from bad to worse, to the point that the past two seasons
the Eagles have often had no player taller than 6-foot-1 in the line-up to
go up against district opponents will players 6-foot-5 to 6-foot-7 on their
starting squads.
Combine that with a lack of consistent 3-point shooting the past few seasons,
and the result was an Eagle team that has struggled to score points, and
one that went 4-23 last year after a winless 1999-2000 season. Pecos' last
trip to the playoffs was 11 years ago, while their last shot at a post-season
trip was done in by _ what else? _ a lack of size against Big Spring back
in 1995, when they lost out to the Steers and current Green Bay Packers tight
end Daniel Franks in a third place playoff game.
This fall, the Eagles will have about half their team back from a year
ago, while adding several players who are expected to give them a much taller
front line than in recent seasons.
"We're blessed this year. We don't just have size when have athleticism,
so we're real fortunate right now," said coach Tino Acosta, whose team opens
its 2001-2002 season next Tuesday night in Monahans.
"Right now I've got six or seven varsity players available. We've got
grades coming out and we've got the football playoffs, so it just kind of
depends on how the scenarios play out," Acosta said, adding that the football
playoffs next week have already forced one change in the Eagles' schedule,
moving their Nov. 17 game at Fort Stockton to Nov. 18, at 11:30 and 1 p.m.
Pecos does have out last year's leading scorer during District 2-4A play,
guard Ezra Varela, along with forward Justin Mora and guard Jaime Gomez,
who Acosta brought up to the varsity late last season. He's also looking
at forward Isaiah Armendariz, who played on San Angelo Central's junior varsity
a year ago, while on the football team, forward Freddy Torres and post Joey
Ortega were on the varsity last season, while post Justin Evans started last
season for Fort Davis.
Overall, though, Acosta said he doesn't have a final varsity roster set
up just yet. "We're still looking. We're kind of holding open tryouts right
now as far as who's going to play varsity and who's going to play JV," he
said.
On offense this year, Acosta said he would be borrowing a little bit from
new Texas Tech head coach Bobby Knight. "We're going to go more to a motion
look. … Fortunately, I was able to go up to Tech at the beginning
of the year to talk to their coaches, who were real helpful in putting it
in. Plus coach (Joe) Flores ran it in college and he's been real helpful
in working on putting it in."
Varela ran the offense at time last season, and Acosta said, "Gomez has
the potential to run it, and I've got some other football players with the
potential to run it."
Defensively, Acosta said the Eagles would continue to run a man-to-man
defense, along with half-court zone presses and full-court presses. "That's
the heart and soul of our program," he said.
The Eagles will travel to Kermit on Saturday afternoon for a 3 p.m. scrimmage
against the Yellowjackets, before going to Crane next Tuesday for their season
opener. Pecos' home opener is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 19, against Presidio.
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 newsdesk@nwol.net
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Copyright 2001 by Pecos Enterprise
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