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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Thursday, September 26, 2002
Eagles, JV, 9th, 7th grade squads
look to extend unbeaten streaks
The Pecos Eagle sub-varsity football teams will be trying to keep a quartet
of unbeaten streaks going today, when the Eagles take on the Crane Golden
Cranes.
Pecos' junior varsity and freshman teams will go for their fourth straight
wins this evening, at home against Crane at 5:30 and 7 p.m., while the seventh
grade Eagles will both try to stay unbeaten on the season in afternoon games
at Crane. The purple team is scheduled for a 5 p.m. start and the gold team
will play at 6:30 p.m.
Pecos' eighth grade purple football team also will be in Crane today,
where they'll be trying for their first win of the season, while the eighth
grade gold team will look to even their season record this afternoon in Marfa
against the Shorthorns. That game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m., while the purple
team will face Crane at 6:30 p.m.
The JV and freshman teams have scored narrow road wins the past two weeks
at Lamesa and Brownfield. The JV took a 24-0 lead last week before holding
on for a 24-22 win to go 3-0 on the season, while the ninth graders are 3-1
after a 2-0 victory over Brownfield. After opening with a loss to McCamey's
JV, the freshmen got their first victory of the season over a split squad
of Crane players back on Sept. 5, by a 20-0 final score.
The seventh grade purple team played a scoreless tie with Monahans last
week and are 1-0-1 on the season, while the gold team is 2-0-1 after their
8-6 win over the Loboes. The eighth grade Eagles purple squad is 0-2 after
losing 28-0 to Monahans, and the gold team is 1-2 after their second loss
in two weeks to the Loboes, this one by a 34-6 final score.
Eagles look to fix problems against unbeaten Cranes
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
After losing at home to a team with a winless record, the Pecos Eagles
football team will now try to win on the road against a team with an
unbeaten record.
The 1-2 Eagles will try to jump start their offense and plug up the holes
on their defense Friday night in Crane, against a 3-0 Golden Cranes team
that drubbed Pecos by a 61-8 score the last time the two teams met, in 1999.
Crane comes off a 20-18 win last Friday at home against Seminole, in which
the Cranes rallied in the second half to take the lead, then had to survive
a late fumble to stop the Indians' bid to get into position for a winning
score.
"Our defense played real well last week," said Crane coach Alan Cherry,
whose team dropped into District 3-2A this season after finishing second
in District 4-3A a year ago _ the district the Eagles are now in after dropping
down from Class 4A.
"They're not the team they were last year, which is good for us, but their
defense is still pretty salty," said Eagles' coach Fred Carter, whose team
will try to turn things around on defense after two bad efforts at home.
"I don't think they have the ability to score like in the last couple of
years. I saw them last year and I was really impressed, but right now, this
is not the same team."
"We lost a lot of seniors last year," Cherry said. "We're playing a lot
of kids who don't have as much experience as what we had a year ago."
But while the Cranes may not be as strong as in recent years, they did
go into Brownfield two weeks ago and defeat the Cubs by a 23-6 final score
_ the same Cub team that went into Pecos last Friday and downed the Eagles,
13-6.
The Cranes have relied mainly on their running game this season, but were
able to complete seven passes both against Brownfield and Seminole. In their
win over the Cubs, Cody Corley threw a pair of touchdown passes, while in
the backfield, they've been using a trio of running backs in Gonzalo Hernandez,
Devon Zimmerman and Daniel Garza.
Zimmerman had a rushing touchdown and a kickoff return for scores last
week, Garza had three TDs in the Cranes' win over McCamey, while Hernandez
has two rushing touchdowns and has kicked four field goals in three games
this season.
"We just try to keep people fresh. They play on both sides, so they're
in and out," Cherry said of the Cranes group of backs. "It's not so much
about who's hot, but just to give everyone a rest, since they play on both
sides of the ball."
"That's what they try to do, run it down your throat," said Carter. "In
the two games we've seen on film, they haven't thrown it very much."
Corley was the Crane's junior varsity quarterback last season, and Cherry
said, "He's done a good job." He threw for 102 yards against Brownfield,
including TD passes to Edgar Baiza and Casey McCain.
If the Cranes do try and throw, they'll be going against what Brownfield
and Lamesa did to the Eagles the past two weeks. The Tornadoes completed
just one pass in five tries and the Cubs had their only pass intercepted.
But both teams won because their ground attacks were so successful. Pecos
has allowed 699 yards rushing the past two weeks, after surrendering only
50 in their 35-10 season opening victory at Alpine.
On the other side of the ball, Pecos' running game was hampered last week
by the absence of backs Oscar Parada and Bino Barreno, after Parada suffered
a concussion and Barreno an ankle injury in the Sept. 13 loss to Lamesa.
The Eagles still do have their No. 1 tailback, Matthew Levario, and he
ran for 91 yards on 20 carries last week. But Brownfield was able to stop
Levario and the other Eagle backs in most key situations, while Pecos' offensive
line gave quarterback Freddy Torres little time to throw most of the night.
"Our line is going to have to do a little better job giving Freddy time
to throw the ball," said Carter. "They need to stay in there and execute
their blocks. That's our biggest problem offensively. We know what to do,
but we just seem to have mental lapses at game time."
Cherry didn't want to single out any single player on his defense, which
has allowed only 193.6 yards and 10 points per game in their first three
outings. "We've may not be as big as we've been, but we've got pretty good
overall team quickness," he said.
Aside from Parada and Barreno, Carter said linebacker Roderick Villanueva,
who also missed last week's game, would be out again this Friday. Pecos moved
up junior varsity linebacker Eric Fuentes prior to last week's game, but
Carter said there wouldn't be any call-ups before this week's match-up with
the Cranes.
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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