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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Monday, September 9, 2002
Eagles make change, cashier Bucks in opener, 35-10
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
The Pecos Eagles didn't get as many yards, and the Alpine Bucks didn't
score quite as few points. But other than that, Friday night's game
at Jackson Field was almost a complete reversal of the game the Eagles
and Bucks played in Alpine a year ago.
Pecos, 35-7 losers to the Bucks last year, allowed about 300 fewer yards
to the Bucks on Friday night, and gained about 200 yards more than they did
a year ago _ in fact, running back Oscar Parada gained 14 more yards in the
first quarter alone than the Eagles did in the entire game a year ago. He
rushed for 136 of his 151 yards and scored two touchdowns in the first period,
as Pecos opened their 2002 season with a 35-10 victory over Alpine.
"He ran very strong for us," new head coach Fred Carter said of Parada,
who got the start at halfback after an injury earlier last week to running
back Bino Barreno, who was starting in place of Matthew Levario.
Both Barreno and Levario, who hurt his knee two weeks ago, saw action
in the game; Barreno on defense and Levario on both defense and offense,
where he would score Pecos' other three touchdowns. The first was on a four-yard
run in the second quarter to give Pecos a 21-0 lead, and the second on a
quick slant pass from Freddy Torres that Levario turned into a 30-yard touchdown,
after Alpine had cut the lead to 21-8.
"Matt is going both ways, and he's on every special team, so we had to
give him a breather," Carter said. "He played there (halfback) some, and
then Oscar went back in."
Defensively, the Eagles controlled things for all but the very early part
of the game and the final minutes of the second quarter when they got themselves
into trouble because of special teams and penalty problems. A bad snap into
the end zone forced punter Abel Lopez to throw the ball away, for which he
was flagged for intentional grounding, which resulted in a safety.
The Eagles then were whistled for roughing quarterback Jim Bob Steen following
the free kick, and that helped set up Steen's 24-yard touchdown pass to Ryan
McWilliams, which got the Bucks to within 13 points 41 seconds before halftime.
Alpine's final two points came on another safety, this one after a low punt
snap when Lopez was tackled in the end zone, and the Eagles botched two of
their five extra point snaps as well.
"We've been having problems with that all week," said Carter, who added
he plans to have the problem corrected by the time Lamesa comes to Pecos
for the Eagles' home opener this Friday. "We've got a couple of kids we're
looking at who we think will come around for us."
Pecos did get off the most important punt snap of the night without a
hitch, after the Eagles' first series when they wound up punting from their
own 9-yard-line. Steen immediately ran 11-yards to the Pecos 38 for a first
down, but the Eagles' defense toughened up after that, and Barreno was able
to knock away a third down pass by Steen to Lamar Keller, forcing a punt.
From there, Pecos' offensive line began opening holes for Parada, beginning
with a 15-yard gain on first down. A 38-yard run a few plays later was cut
in half by a downfield clipping call, but two plays later Parada took a pitch
to the left and went around the end 36-yards for the Eagles' first touchdown
of the season.
The Eagles' next series lasted all of one play. This time Parada cut inside
around the right end after Pecos had forced an Alpine punt and went 62 yards
for his second TD. The extra point snap was bad, but it bounced up to Levario,
who was able to outrace the Bucks' defense to the left corner of the end
zone for a 15-0 lead.
Defensive end Alex Orosco set up Pecos' next score. He hit quarterback
Jaime Romo just as he was handing the ball off to Henry Lara, causing a fumble
that Rodrick Villanueva recovered for Pecos at the Alpine 40. Nine plays
later Levario scored from four yards out.
Alpine's late score just before halftime came off three pass completions
and the personal foul penalty. "He (Steen) had quite a bit of time to throw,"
Carter said. "It seemed like we did good as far as our coverage, we just
need to put more pressure on the quarterback."
While penalties hurt Pecos, fumbles did the same to the Bucks. A fumbled
snap on their first series after halftime forced a punt, and the Eagles then
went 58 yards in nine plays, finishing it off with the crossing pass from
Torres to Levario for the 30-yard score.
Torres, who suffered a slight shoulder dislocation back on Aug. 17, ended
up as the starter after his back-up, Jose Reyes, hurt his ankle in practice
last week. The senior ran the ball on the option with his shoulders tucked
down a little to prevent any further injury, but still managed to gain 69
yards on 18 carries. That included runs of nine- and 20-yards on the Eagles'
final scoring drive, which was capped by a 26-yard run around left end on
4th-and-3 by Levario with 3:24 to play.
"Freddy did a good job with the offense, and all in all the coaches did
an excellent job putting together a game plan for these guys," said Carter,
whose team dropped Alpine to 0-2 on the season.
Alpine was the first of three Class 3A playoff teams from a year ago the
Eagles will face before beginning their first year of District 4-3A play
in October. Lamesa is the second; the Tors shared the 3-3A title last year
with Greenwood and Denver City, and opened their 2002 season on Friday night
with a 29-8 win over Lubbock Cooper.
At Alpine
Pecos 15 7 7 6 _ 35
Alpine 0 8 0 2 _ 10
First Quarter
Pec. _ Parada 36 run (Levario kick), 7:24.
Pec. _ Parada 62 run (Levario run), 11:51.
Second Quarter
Pec. _ Levario 4 run (Levario kick), 5:01.
Alp. _ safety, Lopez called for grounding in end zone, 10:08
Alp. _ McWilliams 24 pass from Steen (pass failed), 11:19
Third Quarter
Pec. _ Levario 30 pass from Torres (Levario kick), 6:59.
Fourth Quarter
Alp. _ safety, Lopez tackled in end zone, 5:25.
Pec. _ Levario 26 run (kick failed), 8:36.
Pec Alp
First Downs 15 10
Rushes-Yds 49-270 25-50
Passing Yds 61 83
Passes 4-9-0 5-14-2
Punts-Yds. 2-40 6-35.5
Fumbles-Lost 4-0 5-2
Penalties-Yds. 8-79 0-0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING _ Pecos, Parada 14-151, Torres 18-69, Levario 13-56, Matta 2-9,
Armstrong 1-(-3), Lopez 1-(-12). Alpine, Steen 11-23, Valenzuela 2-12, Dodson
6-10, Keller 1-7, Lara 4-3, Estrada 1-(-5).
PASSING _ Pecos, Torres 4-6-0-61, Levario 0-2-0-0, Lopez 0-1-0-0. Alpine,
Steen 5-14-2-83, Rojo 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING _ Pecos, Levario 2-38, Sanchez 1-14, Parada 1-9. Alpine, McWilliams
2-42, Estrada 1-16, Dodson 1-11, Lara 1-11.
MISSED FIELD GOALS _ None.
Pecos swept in Seminole Tournament matches
It was a weekend to forget for the Pecos Eagles' volleyball team in Seminole.
The Eagles played six pool round games in their matches on Friday and
two regular games in their match on Saturday and lost them all at the Seminole
Invitational.
"Things have got to get better after this, because we're about at rock
bottom right now," said Eagles' coach Becky Granado, after her team was swept
by the Midland High Bulldogs, Lamesa Golden Tornadoes and Andrews Mustangs
on Friday, and then by the Pampa Harvesters on Saturday in the consolation
quarterfinal round of the tournament.
Pecos scored over 10 points only once in the tournament, in losing pool
round matches to Midland, 15-5, 15-7; to Lamesa 15-6, 15-12; and to Andrews,
15-7, 15-4. Then on Saturday, Pecos was eliminated by Pampa, 15-8, 15-11.
"We just didn't do anything. We were just there," Granado said. "This
past weekend you could tell we had no kind of leadership out there. It seemed
like we had six different kinds of teams on the court.
"Saturday we played a little better. We had some moments when some of
our girls were trying to step it up, but we still fell back. We played good
defense Saturday and had some good blocks, but we can't keep up the momentum
and we struggle to get it back," Granado said.
"It was just a rough weekend. The competition was tough, and I'm not taking
anything away from the other teams, but I felt we should have played better
than what we did," she added.
The Saturday loss was the only one that counted against the Eagles' official
season record, and left them with a 2-10 mark for the first three weeks of
play. However, the schedule does get a lot easier for Pecos from now on,
as they drop down to play nothing but Class 3A and smaller schools for the
rest of the season.
That begins with the Eagles' home dual meet on Tuesday against Van Horn
and Marfa, the first of three dual meets for Pecos before the start of District
4-3A play in Kermit on Sept. 24. Three of their six matches in those dual
meets are against district teams _ Fort Stockton on Sept. 17 and Kermit and
Presidio on Sept. 21.
While the Eagles struggled through the weekend, their other district rival
entered in the Seminole Tournament _ Monahans _ finished second both in their
pool and overall in the tournament, both times to the pre-tourney favorite
Hereford. The Loboes went 3-3 in pool play, then defeated Amarillo River
Road, 11-15, 15-8, 15-8, and Andrews, 13-15, 15-13, 15-4, before falling
to the Whitefaces in the title game, 15-3, 15-4.
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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