Weekly Newspaper and Tourism Guide for Ward County Trans Pecos, Big Bend of West Texas

Sports

September 17, 1998

Lobo racquets shock Andrews

It was the first time in two decades, according to Andrews
officials, that the tennis players from Monahans had beaten
the tennis players from Andrews, says Lobo Coach Stephen
Baber.

Wednesday Baber still was ecstatic.

"Congratulations," he exclaims, "to the Lobo Tennis team!
The girls kept their undefeated streak alive by winning five
matches to 4 over the Andrews girls. The boys won their
head-to-head contest by a score of six matches to 3."

He says the team, building on a base started last Spring
continues with hard work and talent to mature in its quest
for state recognition. One way to do that is for a 3A
tennis school without a country club for 50 miles to beat a
strong 4A tennis squad like the one at Andrews.

Says Baber: "According to the Andrews coach, this was the
first time in 20 years that a Monahans tennis team had
defeated them. "

These Loboes, Baber reports, notched "Ws" on Tuesday - Erin
Armstrong, Lecia Baker, Melinda Covensky, Sandra Molinar,
Megan Shawn, Daniel Fuentes, Curtis Gibson, Ben Hawkins, Joe
Hawkins, Nick Ledingham, Drew Skinner, Robert Wilbur.

Lobo-Mustang Summary
Women's Singles

Erin Armstrong (Monahans) beat Georgia Stein, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5
Lecia Baker (Monahans) beat Christy Overbeck, 6-1, 6-7, 7-3
Megan Shawn (Monahans) beat Melissa Wood, 6-2-, 6-1.
Melinda Covensky (Monahans) beat Blair Long, 6-0, 6-3.
Shamra Gray (Andrews) beat Sandra Molinar, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Crystal Passmore (Andrews) beat Amanda Long, 7-5, 6-1.

Women's Doubles

Overbeck-Stein (Andrews) beat Armstrong-Shawn, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Baker-Molinar (Monahans) beat A. Long-Wood, 2-5, 6-4, 6-4.
B. Long-Gray (Andrews) beat Ashley Neace-Casey Gatzki, 6-2,
3-6, 6-4.

Men's Singles

Will Foster (Andrews) beat Aashish Chopra, 6-1, 6-1.
Daniel Fuentes (Monahans) beat Roan Pugao, 6-2, 6-0.
Erin Leeper (Andrews) beat Robert Wilbur, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.
Curtis Gibson (Monahans) beat Ricky Bintz, 6-4, 6-4.
Ben Hawkins (Monahans) beat Cooper Smartt, ,6-1, 6-0.
Drew Skinner (Monahans) beat Jeremy Muniz, 6-2, 6-0.

Men's Doubles
Foster-Pugeo (Andrews) beat Jeremy Reyes-Fuentes, 6-3, 6-2.
Wilbur-Gibson (Monahans) beat Bintz-Leeper, 6-4, 6-2.
Nick Ledingham-Joe Hawkins (Monahans) beat Muniz-Smartt,
7-5-6-3

Monahans 11 loses twice in Steers game

Then the Loboes lost for the third straight time this1998
season, this one to the Big Spring Steers, 26-14, on Friday,
Sept. 11, in Big Spring. Against 4A Big Spring, the Loboes
scored twice and proved that even with injuries this 3A club
can be competitive, truly competitive.

Coach Larry Hanna said it was the first time in his career
that he had lost a player in pre-game drills.

Even with luck like that, Hanna sees opportunity in this
week's game with Andrews, the fourth ranked 3A team in the
state with a running back named Shaud Williams who is being
recruited by Division One colleges from coast to coast and
border to border.

After a tough opening 30-0 loss to Snyder, and a hard-nosed
20-0 1997 playoff rematch loss to Seminole in Monahans,
worries ran rampant about when the Loboes would be "back."
For a consensus, it wasn't believed it would be against Big
Spring. After all, the Steers carried with them one of the
best backfields in West Texas, led by the fastest High
School sprinter in the nation, Tory Mitchell. On paper, Big
Spring should make a mockery of the Loboes, and the Harris
Ratings even made them a seven point favorite.

Just in case you didn't know, there's a reason they play the
games.

The Loboes arrived in Big Spring a pumped, but somewhat
hurting, football team. The team would be unable to call on
the services of two of their 1997 All-District
players-Linebackers Gabriel Ontiveros and Brandon Lee.
However, the Loboes had regained three other teammates-Wayne
Branham, Jeff Ennis, and Larry Navarette.

As the Loboes came out for warm-ups, the team was the most
focussed it had been all year. The defense was looking
for another stellar performance, while the offense had the
much eluded goal-line in their eye.

The "Pump-up, warm-up" pre-game took a victim, Hanks During
defensive warm-ups, starting Linebacker Willie Hanks cleanly
separated his left shoulder. Hanks returned to the locker
room, where the shoulder was set.

"That's the first young man I've ever lost in pre-game."
Coach Larry Hanna told the Lobo Booster Club Tuesday night.

The Loboes won the coin toss and elected to defer their
choice to the second half. Big Spring elected to receive,
but were quickly stifled by a swarming Lobo defense. Just
four minutes into the game, the Big Green "O" made their way
on to the field.

On their first play from scrimmage, Roy Porras busted
through a hole opened by the O-Line and the Loboes had
their opening first down of the evening. The Loboes
continued to pound the Big Spring defense, and after a Big
Spring penalty, faced first and goal on the Big Spring 4
yard line.

On the next play, Porras jammed between the block of Josh
Swarb and the outside double team provided by Adam Quiroz
and Lanny Hayes and was in the endzone. The Monahans
scoring drought of 1998 was over. Joel Najar added the PAT,
and the Loboes led 7-0 with 6:23 remaining in the first
quarter.

Lobo and Steer "D" both stopped their opposing offenses in
their next possessions. After Monahans forced a punt, the
Big Spring defense did the same. Benny Rodriguez kicked the
ball to Big Spring returner Joe Owens, and Owens quickly
tried to gain yards. However, Ruben Garcia stripped the
ball from the Steer and the Loboes quickly pounced,
regaining possesion near Big Spring territory. However, the
Big Spring secondary pulled out an equalizer, as their
cornerback jumped to pick a sure touchdown pass by Jarod
Thomas from the reaching hands of DePhil Phillips.

The rest of the first quarter and the beginning of the
second quarter kept with roughly the same pattern-back and
forth battles between the Loboes and Steers. Big Spring
finally hit pay dirt in the second quarter, as they drove
the ball deep into Lobo territory. They capped their drive
off with a 12 yard run by Colby Ford, and tightened the
score to 7-6. The Big Spring kicker, as was to be the norm
for the night, shanked the PAT wide left.

Loboes could not be held down, though. Jarod Thomas
completed a long strike to Micah Tuxhorn, which moved the
ball to the Big Spring 32. Then Raul Hinojos took a Thomas
pitch to the right side, exploited some line blocks, but
passed them all by the time he hit the 20 yard line.
Hinojos literally dove into the end zone from Big Spring
three

Joel Najar kicked the PAT into the Big Green Band, which
was preparing for its halftime show. The Loboes led 14-6 at
the half.

The third quarter continuted the back and forth battles that
had marked the first two quarters. Big Spring struck
through with a drive towards the middle of the third
quarter. The drive finished with a 15 yard run by RB Paul
Conero, and the Steers cut the lead back to 14-12. The Lobo
defense held the Steers from making the two-point
conversion. The third ended with that same 14-12 score,
with Big Spring threatening at the Lobo 32.

The fourth quarter began with Ford taking another Owens
hand-off on a sweep into the endzone. Ford scored the two
point conversion himself, giving Big Spring a 20-14 lead.

With the Lobo D fighting desperately for a turnover, Ford
led the Steers again down the field, and capped it with a 4
yard TD run. Again, the kick was wide left. However, the
damage had been done, and the Loboes could do little in the
remaining 36 seconds. As the final buzzer rang, the Steers
emerged with a 26-14 victory. The Loboes had faced the
toughest team that they had played all year, and performed
well. Despite the loss, Coach Hanna said he and his staff
were impressed and proud of their team's effort.

The Loboes take on the state ranked Andrews Mustangs this
Friday, Sept. 19. Williams is not the only gun Andrews'
boasts. Quarterback Dan Kessler shines in the air and on the
ground. .Andrews is 2-0 on the season.

Cowboys roll over Chargers

It was such a mismatch the referees invoked six-man
football's 45-point mercy rule at the half, called the game
and stopped the carnage. Cowboy defenders held the Chargers
to a negative 24 yards. El Paso's lone touchdown came on a
70-yard kickoff return. Cowboy Danny Santiago led the
defense with 12 tackles; Andy Leyva and Eric Garcia had
nine each.

That abbreviated outing Friday, Sept. 11, was the 1998
home opener for the Cowboys. The Chargers, who are a good
football team, really should not feel bad.
Grandfalls-Royalty is good, truly good. Undefeated so far
this season, Faith Christian became the twenty-third
consecutive regular season victim of the Cowboys.

This year, Grandfalls already is 2-0. They're ranked third
in Texas Six-Man Football by the authoritative Huntress
Report compiled by computers in San Antonio. Only Borden
County (1), who beat Grandfalls by four points deep in the
1997 playoffs and went on to win the state championship, and
Trinidad (2) are ranked ahead of the Big Red. Grandfalls and
Trinidad meet on a neutral field on Saturday, Sept. 26 at
Voss. That game's winner will most likely vault past Borden
County into the top ranking. The loser still would not be a
bad bet to win the state championship when the football's
all done in December..

Grandfalls has an open date this week to prepare for that
climatic contest with Trinidad. The Cowboy Junior Varsity
(0-0) though will play the Marathon varsity (1-1) at 7:30
p.m. on Friday, Sept. 18, in Grandfalls. Cowboy JV football
plays varsity squads from other schools.

In the Cowboy home opener, Coach Dewaine Lee notes his
players improved from the previous week and met execution
goals.

Says Lee: "The kids blocked extremely well against El Paso
Faith Christian. They graded out as a team as a whole lot
better than last week (a 49-28 victory over Sands at
Ackerly). We saw some people getting multiple blocks who
previously had stopped after the first block. We like that."

So do Cowboy running backs.

Coyote trappers take sweet victory

King says he and his partner, Taylor, trapped 21 coyotes in
the annual North American Coyote Trapping Championship at
the Apache reservation. They finished third behind Mike
Greenwell and Mike Hensely of Utah (34) and Bill Applegate
and Jim Brooks (22), another Texas trapping team.

Trappers from Utah, Arizona, Missouri, Pennsylvania,
Tennessee and Texas competed in the contest that lasted from
Aug. 28 through Sept. 6. King reports 123 coyotes were
removed from the reservation by the trappers.

Charles Davis, official trapper for the Jicarilla Apache
Reservation, says the annual competition has helped to
increase the doe/fawn deer and cow/calf elk survival rate
from 16 percent to 55 percent in the last decade.

Notes Davis: "The Jicarilla Apache Reservation is ranked as
one of North America's Top Trophy Grade hunting areas for
both mule deer and elk.

King and Taylor, district directors of the Texas Trappers
and Fur Hunter Association, won $900 for finishing third.
First place earned $2,500; second, $1,375.