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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Sports

Thursday, October 3, 2002

Pecos, Lubbock both in search of second wins

By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer

Coming into a game against a Class 5A opponent while trying  to snap a three game losing streak, the Pecos Eagles could have used a  calm week with few distractions.

Instead, the Eagles have had injuries, grades and off-campus problems to worry about, going into their final pre-district game, Friday night against the Lubbock High Westerners.

The Eagles and Westerners meet for the first time since the 1995 season at Eagle Stadium, with both teams trying to go into their district openers with a win after starting the season with 1-3 records.

Pecos comes in off a 38-7 loss a week ago to undefeated Crane, a game which the Eagles led after one quarter, 7-0, but saw the Golden Cranes put up 24 points in the second period. Pecos was held to 195 yards on offense, 75 of that on their first period touchdown drive.

Pecos' offensive woes started just after running back Matthew Levario suffered a deep thigh bruise, which limited his effectiveness. Coach Fred Carter said Wednesday he wasn't sure if Levario _ who also started a linebacker last week _ would be able to go against the Westerners. "I don't know. Right now it's a day-to-day thing," Carter said.

Meanwhile Carter said the Eagles would lose three players to ineligibility for at least the next three weeks, including punter and starting receiver Abel Lopez.

"We're looking at a couple of guys before we decide who's going to do the punting," said Carter, while adding, "On the other side, we've gained Roy Juarez who's a good utility back. We can use him in a number of positions.

The other problem _ this past weekend's citations of Pecos High School students over a party in which alcohol was involved _ remains up in the air. "We'll just have to wait and see what happens with that. We don't know what they're going to do right now," Carter said.

Despite all those distractions, the Eagles' coach said his players' attitudes "have been pretty good," going into Friday's game with Lubbock High, which escaped with a 7-6 victory over Pecos the last time the two teams met.

Joe Laudermilk was the coach in that game, when the Westerners stopped a late two-point conversion try by the Eagles to win a game that featured 18 fumbles on a nearly flooded Lowery Field surface. Laudermilk remains the coach of the Westerners, who are still hoping to improve on last season's 4-6 record.

Last Thursday, Lubbock High lost 14-0 and 28-13 leads and lost to Levelland, 29-28 on a last-second, 39-yard field goal. The Westerners turned the ball over once on a kickoff, lost an onside kick and missed their own 26-yard field goal in the final period to help Levelland rally.

"We're working with a lot of new players, and that's part of our problem," said Laudermilk. "We have that problem early in the year most of the time, getting to the kids what they're supposed to do."

Despite their 1-3 mark, the Westerners have outscored their opponents this season, thanks to their 41-6 win over Amarillo Caprock on Sept. 13. They were shut out in their opener by Canyon Randall, 18-0, and were beaten by Canyon High two weeks ago, 21-13.

Against Levelland, Michael Moody had a 10-yard touchdown run and another 40-yard run to set up a score, while quarterback Chandler Barnard had a touchdown pass to tight end Matt Boal.

Carter said Moody, "is a good athlete. They have a number of good athletes," and run their offense out of a number of different sets. But as far as where they run, the Eagles' coach added, "Basically they do the same thing out of all of them. Whichever side he's on they're going to run to the right or the left."

"Their line has got some good size. They've got a number of big kids," he added. Aside from Moody, running backs Fabian Sepeda and Tony Rioz are the other backs running behind that line for Lubbock High.

Laudermilk said Barnard is in his second year as the Westerners' starter. "He's doing pretty good. He hasn't thrown the ball too bad, but he's had problems somewhat getting out and finding his second receiver," he said.

Defensively, Levelland has had similar problems in stopping the run as the Eagles have had. Levelland's Christian Coronado ran the ball 37 times last week for 171 yards and three touchdowns, while Pecos allowed Crane's Devon Zimmerman to run for 169 yards last week, 128 of that in the second half.

"Levelland pretty much ran, ran, ran on them, and they threw a little as well," said Carter, while the Eagle defense also was hurt in the first half of their loss last week by Crane's passing game.

Friday's game is the midpoint of the season for the Eagles, who'll have only four games in District 4-3A play this season, beginning next week, when they travel to Kermit.

Eagles' JV, Jr. high gridders facing Panther squads

The Pecos Eagles' sub varsity teams went to Lamesa three Thursdays ago when the varsity hosted Lamesa the following night. Two weeks ago, they went to Brownfield when the varsity hosted the Cubs the following night.

But with the Eagles hosting Lubbock High tomorrow, Pecos' junior varsity and freshman teams are not planning any 210-mile trip tonight. In fact, the freshmen Eagles won't even be playing at all this evening.

The junior varsity will be at home tonight, for a 6 p.m. game against Fort Stockton, while the junior high Eagles will be in Fort Stockton this afternoon, for seventh and eighth grade games against the Panthers at 4 and 5:30 p.m.

The JV lost their first game of the season last week, as Crane rallied from a 22-6 deficit to defeat Pecos, 30-22. Aurelio Lopez, Rashad Terry and Tito Gonzalez had the touchdowns for the Eagles, who are 3-1 on the season.

The eighth grade purple team will seek their first win in four tries, after losing in Crane last week by a 14-12 final score. Luis Ortega and Isaiah Rayos had Pecos' touchdowns last week.

The seventh grade purple team is 1-1-1 on the season after losing at Crane, 20-12, while the seventh grade gold team is 3-0-1 after their 18-0 win over Crane. Juan Garza and Jeremy Dunlap had Pecos' purple team scores and Vincent Palomino, Bryant Winfrey and Francisco Sanchez scored for the gold team.



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Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
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