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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Thursday, September 5, 2002
Eagles look to reverse results against Bucks in opener
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
The Union Pacific railroad runs just north of Jackson Field in Alpine,
but the Pecos Eagles could be forgiven for thinking the trains were
running right through the middle of the field last September.
The Bucks threw for over 150 yards in the first half and ran for over
150 in the second and finished with 439 total yards, while the Eagles ended
up with almost as many penalty yards (97) as the had total yards on offense
(122) by the end of Alpine's 35-7 victory.
The Bucks would go on to upend a few more people during the year and ended
up as the surprise winners of the District 4-3A title, before falling to
Kennedale in the third round of the Class 3A-Division II playoffs. This season,
the Bucks (and last year's 4-3A runners-up, Crane) have dropped down to Class
2A, while the Eagles are dropping into Alpine's old district, and along with
another newcomer, Greenwood, are expected to battle for the 4-3A title.
Greenwood has already come up with an impressive win in their season opener,
and now it's the Eagles' turn to show how well they match up with the preseason
predictions, as they take on the Bucks at Jackson Field on Friday night,
starting at 7:30 p.m.
Pecos has lost two straight games to Alpine, losing two years ago in overtime
at home, 6-0. But the Eagles will be facing a much different Buck team this
time around, as most of the starters from those squads graduated this past
May.
Alpine has a new coach in Brent Evans, and only three starters back on
offense and two on defense from the 10-2 squad from a year ago. Their only
regular season loss came the week following their win over Pecos, when they
were beaten by Sonora, which was on its way to the Class 2A state finals.
This year the Bucks opened their season at Sonora last week, where they
were shut out by the Broncos, 19-0. Alpine was held to only 170 total yards,
while Sonora picked up 305, just under 200 of that on the ground.
"I wasn't very impressed with them, but Sonora is a very good ballclub,"
said Eagles' coach Fred Carter, who makes his head coaching debut with Friday's
game.
"They lost most of their players from last year, but they run about the
same thing as last year. They ran a lot of I-back right Friday night, and
defensively they do the same thing as a year ago," Carter said, as Evans
moved up from an assistant coach job under Greg Althof in 2001.
Eagles' assistant coach Brian Gibson said Jim Bob Steen and Mario Estrada
split the quarterback duties a week ago. Steen also saw action at running
back and wide receiver, while Casey O'Brient, one of last year's returning
players, is Steen's main target at quarterback, and Henry Lara is the Bucks'
main runner. Lara ran for 69 yards as a backup fullback in last year's win
over Pecos.
The Eagles' lone score a year ago in Alpine came on a two-yard run by
Matthew Levario, off a 33-yard scramble by quarterback Freddy Torres. Both
those players are back, but both are coming off scrimmage injuries. Torres'
was the more serious of the two, as he suffered a slight shoulder separation
on Aug. 17 against El Paso Riverside, while Levario bruised his knee a week
later against Fabens.
"Matthew will probably play his regular spots. Freddy will probably play
sparingly, mainly a little on defense," said Carter. Jose Reyes, who started
the Aug. 23 scrimmage against Fabens, would start in Torres' place at quarterback.
Steen is one of several two-way starters for the Bucks on defense, as
is John Navarrette, the Bucks center who also was an all-district pick on
the defensive line from last season. Emmanuel DelaRosa is Alpine's other
returning lineman, and also was an all-district pick.
Carter was happy with the Eagles' workouts earlier this week leading up
to Friday's game. "(Monday) we had a tremendous practice. I thought it was
the best we've had so far. The kids we have on the team are eager to go and
they go after it."
Alpine is the only team from year's pre-district football schedule that
Pecos again is playing in the first half of the season. Four of last year's
pre-district opponents _ Kermit, Presidio, Fort Stockton and Monahans _
are now part of the Eagles' Distirct 4-3A schedule, though the status of
the Oct. 18 game against Presidio remains up in the air.
The Blue Devils have enough players for a team this year, but said they
would only play a junior varsity schedule for all 10 weeks this season. However,
the University Interscholastic League could overrule that action. Pecos-Barstow-Toyah
ISD Athletic Director Bubba Williams said the UIL would notify the district
soon about their decision.
Presidio had only 14 players left at the end of their final pre-district
game a year ago, a 62-8 loss to Pecos. The Blue Devils cancelled some of
their district games after that due to a lack of players.
Pecos faces tough field at Seminole
The start of the Pecos Eagles' 2002 volleyball season is looking a lot
like the start of the 2001 season, which isn't very good for coach Becky
Granado.
The Eagles won only four of their first 15 matches a year ago before turning
things around to make the playoffs for the sixth straight season. This year,
the Eagles have started off by winning just two of their first 11 matches,
and figure to have their toughest time yet coming up this Friday and Saturday,
when they travel to the Seminole Invitational.
The Eagles will face Lamesa, Midland High and Andrews in their pool round
matches, at 11:30 a.m., 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The top two finishers
in the pool will advance to the championship bracket, while the two others
will drop into the consolation quarterfinals Saturday morning.
"There aren't any easy matches," said Eagles' coach Becky Granado of the
tournament, which comes after the Eagles dropped a pair of matches on Tuesday
in Alpine, to the Bucks and Odessa High Bronchos.
"We missed a lot of serves against Odessa High. I think we missed about
six serves, which is the most we have in any game this season," said Granado
of the 15-9, 15-3 loss. The Eagles came back and won their opening game over
Alpine, 18-16, but then were beaten by the Bucks 15-7, 15-6.
It was the second loss of the season by the Eagles to both teams. They
haven't faced any of their pool round opponents yet this year, but Andrews
comes in off a pair of wins Tuesday over Midland High and Snyder, while the
Bulldogs also beat the Tigers to get a split of their Tuesday matches. Lamesa
lost last week to Pecos' district rival Monahans, which swept the Eagles
two weeks ago at the Sandhills Tournament.
Lamesa and Pecos are two of only five Class 3A teams in the tournament,
along with the host Maidens, Monahans and Amarillo River Road. Seminole and
River Road are in a bracket with Big Spring and Midland Lee, while Monahans
is matched up with Odessa Permian, Amarillo Caprock, and Hereford. The other
pool includes Pampa, Lubbock Estacado, San Angelo Lake View and Lubbock Coronado.
While the varsity is in Seminole this weekend, Pecos' junior varsity will
be in tournament play at Midland. After this weekend, the Eagles' schedule
gets easier, with matches at home next week against Van Horn and Marfa, followed
by pre-district contests against District 4-3A rivals Ft. Stockton, Kermit
and Presidio.
Jr. highs, JV open seasons, freshmen taking on Cranes
Regular season will open a day ahead of the varsity for Pecos' junior
varsity and junior high football teams, as the seventh and eighth graders
go to Alpine to face the Bucks, while the JV hosts Alpine this evening at
Eagle Stadium.
Meanwhile, the freshmen, who got in their first game a week ago against
McCamey's junior varsity, will also play today, but against Crane, in a 5
p.m. game at Eagle Stadium.
It's the first action against an outside opponent of any kind for the
junior high players, while the JV players have already scrimmaged three teams,
shutting out El Paso Riverside and Fabens JVs while losing to Fort Hancock's
varsity.
The JV game will start about 7 p.m.,. after the completion of the freshman
game, which is the second straight late addition to the schedule for the
Eagles' ninth graders.
They'll try to do better than last week, when they were beaten by McCamey,
36-6. The ninth graders' lone touchdown came off a 22-yard run by Luis Nunez
on the game's final play.
The ninth graders are facing Crane because Alpine does not have a freshman
team. They also do not have junior high `B' squads, so today's seventh and
eighth grade openers are only for the purple teams, at 4 and 5:30 p.m. The
Eagles' junior high gold teams will play their season openers next Thursday
against Monahans.
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 2002 by Pecos Enterprise
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