|
|
Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Monday, August 24, 1998
Eagles knot Loboes in scrimmage game
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Aug. 24 -- The Pecos Eagles gave new head coach Dan
Swaim a lot to be pleased about Friday night, in their
opening football scrimmage against the Monahans Loboes.
The Eagles' first team defense shut out the Loboes' first
team unit, while scoring once in the 12 minute timed
quarter. They came after the Loboes notched their lone
score, in the second team series, as the longtime rivals
ended up in a 1-1 tie in their only meeting of the season.
Mark Abila bounced into the end zone on a 4th-and-4 play,
after Robert Gonzales recovered a Monahans fumble at the
Loboes' 29-yard line seven plays earlier. Defensively, the
first team allowed Monahans a couple of 33-yard pass plays,
but shut down the Loboes' running game for the most part,
with the exception of two first down runs during the opening
20-play series.
"We looked pretty good. We got some questions answered on
what kind of schemes we can use," said Swaim, who debuted as
the Eagles' head coach Friday after serving two years as an
assistant. "I was real impressed with our kids enthusiasm.
Monahans gave us a great scrimmage, the best since I've been
in Pecos.
"What got me was I thought our offense was probably ahead
of our defense, but the kids proved me wrong. Our defense
stepped it up, but we do have a lot of leadership back there
on defense."
Monahans did hurt themselves with a couple of fumbles on
their opening 20-play series. A bad snap helped the stop
Monahans' first drive at their own 37, while a bad pitch on
a 3rd-and-1 at the Pecos 15 stopped the Loboes short on
their next series.
The Eagles also had some problems of their own with fumbles
both during the 20-play first team series and the 15-play
second team scrimmage. Pecos drove to Monahans' 40 on their
first series when Lucio Florez -- just back from his week of
track competition in Europe -- lost the ball while running a
counter play, while quarterback Oscar Luna was sacked and
fumbled on the next series, with Monahans returning it to
Pecos' 5-yard line.
Before then Luna and Hector Garcia had 14-yard first down
runs, and Luna also would connect with Garcia for an 11-yard
gain just prior to the first fumble,
A 24-yard pass set up Monahans' touchdown on the second
15-play series, off a 16-yard run. The Eagles' meanwhile,
used Jacob Esparza's running late in their next series to
drive inside Monahans' 10-yard line, but a pitch to Esparza
around the right end on a 4th-and-8 came up two yards short.
Esparza would be held to just one yard on second- and
third-down carries at the five, after four runs by Garcia
and one by Abila gave Pecos a 1st-and-goal at the nine. On
fourth down the Eagles went to Abila who was hit at about
the 1½ yard line, but was able to stay up long enough to
just get the ball into the end zone.
The Eagles also managed to eat up almost six minutes with
their 29-yard drive, giving Monahans only one more chance to
score. A slot pass netted 33-yards, but after another first
down a fumbled snap by quarterback Jared Thompson again cost
the Loboes, and a 4th-and-8 pass by Thompson was incomplete.
"After we watch the game film we'll figure out exactly
where we are. After you watch the film you see it's never as
good as you think it was or it's never as bad as it looked,"
said Swaim, who was also happy his team came out of the
scrimmage with only minor injuries.
The most serious was a bruised knee suffered by lineman
Alonzo Valencia on the Eagles' first offensive play. "He's
fine. We just held him out to be on the safe side," said
Swaim. "We got to look at a lot of kids and had no injuries,
and that's the best thing that can happen."
On the sub-varsity level, the Eagles and Loboes split, with
Monahans taking the JV scrimmage, 5-1, while Pecos' freshmen
won their game by a 5-3 score.
Monahans had three touchdowns during their three scrimmage
series, and scored two more on their five-play goal line
series from the five yard line. Pecos got their score on the
goal line series, a run by Donnie Winfrey.
The freshmen got three running touchdowns by quarterback
Richard Rodriguez, a 23-yarder on the first series and two
5-yard runs during the goal line series. He also connected
with Ricky Plummer for a 40-yard TD pass on the first
series, while Mason Abila had Pecos' final score, from
5-yards on in the goal line situation.
Monahans split their touchdowns evenly, getting one from
the first team series, one from the second team and the
third during the goal line series.
Pecos will now scrimmage Monahans' District 4-3A rival,
Midland Greenwood, this Friday, before opening their season
on Sept. 3 at Ratliff Stadium in Odessa against Denver City.
Friday's scrimmage was originally scheduled for Midland, but
was switched to Eagle Stadium due to resodding work being
done on Greenwood's field.
Pecos splits Ector tourney matches
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
ODESSA, Aug. 24 -- Five days after splitting their
season-opening matches, the results were pretty much the
same for the Pecos Eagles on Saturday at the Ector County
ISD Volleyball Tournament -- they won a match despite
missing a ton of serves, then struggled to find an offense
against Alpine.
However, coach Becky Granado said she has seen some
improvement in her team between last Tuesday's opener's and
Saturday games.
The Eagles fell into the consolation bracket of the
tournament after going 1-5 in pool round play Saturday, but
it did allow them to face a possible bi-district playoff
opponent in El Paso Riverside, in the quarterfinals of the
tournament. And just as they did against Odessa High in
their season opener, the Eagles overcame their own serving
errors to score a 16-14, 11-15, 15-5 victory over the
Rangerettes.
That put them into the consolation semifinals against
Alpine, and unlike Tuesday, when they were swept, the Eagles
went out and beat the Bucks in the first game, by a 16-14
score. But after that the offense would struggle until it
was too late, allowing Alpine to win the second game 15-3
and then go out to a 13-4 score lead in the deciding game,
before holding off Pecos to win, 15-9.
"We played well in the first game. Our passing and setting
was real good and we played like a team. but after the first
game we just let up," said Granado, whose team fell to 2-2
on the season. "We gave them so many free balls and they
were just taking advantage. That's what killed us."
Defensively, the Eagles also struggled getting in position,
as Alpine's Selena Monclova and O'Lita McWilliams had far
better sets and openings to hit from most of the way.
The Eagles got things together towards the end, as
Philonicus Fobbs would have blocks for points on those
players plus Amanda Havens, while Sherrie Mosby and Leslie
Hathorn added a couple of kills. But the double-digit
deficit was too much to make up, and McWilliams would
finally win it with an ace after Alpine broke serve.
The Eagles got things together in their third game win over
Riverside, after struggling to maintain serve in the
openers. "As far as our serving goes, we missed 34 serves
(in the first match)," Granado said, while adding that when
they did get the ball over the next, the Eagles did well.
"Philonicus was still a little asleep (the game was an 8
a.m. start), but all the other girls did well. We picked up
a bunch of kills," said Granado. "We're starting to play
better. I saw some good things, but I don't know why they
just hold back, hold back and keep making more mistakes
instead of being aggressive."
Pecos' lone win in pool round play came over Lamesa, who
ended up reaching the tournament finals before losing to San
Angelo Lake View by a 15-11, 16-14 score. After a Friday
morning loss to Midland High, The Eagles dropped their first
match to Lamesa, 15-5, then handed the Tornadoes their lone
pool round loss, 15-13. But Pecos then missed a chance to
advance to the championship bracket by falling 15-11, 15-13
to El Paso Coronado, which would lose on Saturday to Alpine
in the consolation finals, 15-7, 15-9.
Lake View advanced to the finals with a 15-8, 12-15, 15-9
win over Midland Lee, who'll host the Eagles and Snyder
Tigers for a three-way meet on Tuesday. "We'll see how we do
on Tuesday. Midland Lee's tough this year, but I think it's
good to have a tough preseason (district) schedule," Granado
said.
Cards, McGwire defend use of drug
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The St. Louis Cardinals dispute that the
muscle-enchancing pill taken by Mark McGwire is a steroid
and said they don't object to its use.
The Associated Press reported last week that McGwire, who is
chasing Roger Maris' home run record, has used
androstenedione, a testosterone-producing pill, for more
than a year. He also uses creatine, an over-the-counter
muscle builder.
The pill is legal in baseball, but banned in the NFL and
NCAA.
Androstenedione, known as ``andro,'' raises levels of the
male hormone, which builds lean muscle mass and promotes
recovery after injury.
In a statement distributed during Sunday's game in
Pittsburgh, the Cardinals' medical staff disputed that
androstenedione is a steroid:
``Androstenedione is a natural substance, which is natural
precursor product of testosterone. It has no proven anabolic
steroid effect nor significant side effects. It contains no
testosterone. It stimulates slight increase in one's natural
testosterone levels for a short period of time (1 hour).
Taken approximately one hour before workouts, it may make
one's workout more efficient.
``Due to current research that lacks documentary evidence of
any adverse side effects, the Cardinals' medical staff
cannot object to Mark's choice to use this legal and
over-the-counter supplement.''
McGwire said Saturday he wouldn't jeopardize his health by
using an unsafe product and has been assured that
androstenedione isn't harmful.
``There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. It's legal,'' he
said. ``I've been with my nutrition company since 1992 and
they're not going to give me bad stuff. I'm not worried
about it a bit.''
Singh keeps in turn with Sprint win
By JOHN MOSSMAN
AP Sports Writer
CASTLE ROCK, Colo. -- One of the best lag putts Vijay Singh
ever stroked made him a back-to-back winner on the PGA Tour,
and the circuit's leading money-winner to boot.
One week after capturing the PGA championship, Singh
prevailed in the Sprint International on Sunday, leading
wire-to-wire and punctuating his win with an eagle on the
17th hole.
Singh, who shared the first-round lead with Jim Carter and
was the outright leader after the second and third rounds,
began the final day with 33 points and a narrow 1-point lead
under the modified Stableford scoring system used in this
event. He never relinquished his advantage.
The 35-year-old native of Fiji birdied five holes on his
front nine, increasing his point total to 43 for a 7-point
lead over Willie Wood at the turn. His victory wasn't
clinched until eight holes later, however.
With a 1-point lead over both Wood and defending champion
Phil Mickelson, Singh played the 492-yard, par-5 17th hole
perfectly.
He drilled a 3-wood 306 yards uphill to the middle of the
fairway, then hit an 8-iron 186 yards to the back fringe.
His downhill, curving putt from 20 feet found the cup for a
5-point eagle, increasing his point total to 47.
``I was just trying to get close to the hole, to be
honest,'' Singh said of his eagle putt. ``It was so fast
going down there, I didn't want to have a long putt coming
back. When I saw the ball rolling, I thought, `Perfect
speed.' And the line was obviously perfect, too. When it
went in, I thought, `That's it, you can't lose it from
here.'''
Singh pocketed $360,000, boosting his season earnings to
$1,694,253 and ahead of previous leader David Duval.
``My goal is to stay up there. All the credit has to go to
my hard work,'' said Singh, whose tireless practice habits
are legendary.
Wood and Mickelson tied for second at 41, and Tiger Woods,
who fashioned four eagles in the first three rounds but none
on Sunday, finished at 38. Rocco Mediate was next at 37.
The International's scoring format awards 5 points for an
eagle, 2 for birdie, zero for par, minus-1 for bogey and
minus-3 for double-bogey or worse. Points accumulated over
all four rounds. The field, cut at the halfway point, was
cut again to the top 36 scorers and ties for Sunday's final
round.
``That was probably the nicest first nine of golf I've
played for a long time,'' Singh said. ``I was very confident
after the ninth hole that I was going to win.
``I knew sooner or later I was going to make a birdie
somewhere down the stretch. All I needed was one more birdie
to seal things up.''
Instead, he made eagle.
``Give credit to Willie,'' Singh said. ``He stuck in there
and made some birdies, and it was a really close match until
I was lucky to make eagle on 17 that turned everything
around.''
After Singh's poor drive on No. 10 and subsequent bogey,
Wood ran in birdie putts at the 11th and 12th holes, and the
lead was trimmed to 2 points.
Wood three-putted the 14th to fall another point behind, but
the diminutive Oklahoman sank a 15-foot birdie putt at No.
16 to cut the deficit to 1.
Wood's lack of length hurt him at 17, which is a birdie and
eagle opportunity for most players. His drive found the
right rough, and his second shot, a long iron, was short of
the green. He pitched to 20 feet, but two-putted for a
disappointing par.
Singh's eagle seconds earlier already had decided it.
Wood, 37, who owns just one victory in his 14 full seasons
on the PGA Tour, said, ``I played well, but Vijay's eagle on
17 just shut the door on me. He has always driven the ball
well. Now he's putting really good.
``I came to this tournament knowing I had to play flawless
golf because I don't make many eagles. Vijay and I pushed
each other, and I think the fans appreciated it.''
Mickelson, who birdied three holes on the front nine to get
to 34, closed with a flourish. He eagled the 17th and
birdied the 18th, a 7-point flurry.
The long-hitting Woods started fast, birdieing his first two
holes and, after a bogey at No. 3, carding another birdie at
No. 4 to get to 36 points. But, struggling with his swing
mechanics, Woods began spraying the ball and suffered bogeys
at Nos. 6, 9 and 12 to drop to 33.
Back-to-back birdies at Nos. 14 and 15 got him back in
contention at 37 points, but he three-putted the 16th hole,
and his eagle bid failed at 17 when his putt slid past the
hole.
Pecos Enterprise
Mac McKinnon, 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
Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
Copyright 1998 by Pecos Enterprise
|
Pecos Enterprise