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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Monday, August 23, 1999
Pecos suffers through rough Friday in Monahans
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
MONAHANS, Aug. 23 -- There have been a lot of bad Friday nights for
the Pecos Eagles' football team in Monahans over the past 15 years, and
this past Friday was another one of them. But unlike all the others, the
Eagles' 5-0 scrimmage loss to the Loboes doesn't count in the standings.
Monahans' Luis Moreno raced through a hole on the right side of the
line on the fourth play of the scrimmage and raced 80 yards for the first
score, and quarterback Raul Hinojos threw two touchdown passes, as the
Loboes' first team scored twice in their opening series and three more
times in a `game condition' situation at the end of the scrimmage.
"Monahans made more plays than we did, they were bigger than us and
stronger than us," said coach Gary Grubbs. "The flip side is it was as
scrimmage. It was just like a practice, except you're going against somebody
else.
"There were still a lot of bright spots. We were doing something different
on defense and we were doing something different on offense, and it takes
a while to adjust."
Certainly the Eagles' first offensive series was un-Pecos-like, with
pass plays on 12 of the first 13 snaps. The Eagles got a couple of big
gainers, with Alex Garcia hooking up with Kevin Bates for 27- and 37-yard
receptions.
"We did that on purpose," Grubbs said of the pass plays. "The reason
behind that was except for Len we started a lot of young backs, and with
Omar (Luna) and Mason (Abila) playing defense we were thinking long term
and didn't want anybody to get hurt."
Pecos played without running back Jacob Esparza, who is out with a broken
hand. He was the second Pecos player hurt during practice, as the Eagles
lost linebacker Joe Robert Lara for the season with torn knee ligaments.
Pecos was also looking at three new quarterback hopefuls, with Garcia
playing with the first team, while Sergio Zembrano and Richard Rodriguez
worked with the second unit.
"I don't think Alex did too bad a job. He's still learning, and we would
have had a chance to score under regular conditions, because they were
called for facemasking on that sack," Grubbs said after Garcia was dropped
at the 25 yard line following his long completions to Bates.
Garcia and the other Eagle quarterbacks still have some work to do on
the option play. A bad pitch set Monahans up at the Pecos 10 for the second
of the Loboes' three TDs in the controlled section, while Monahans' third
score came after a shanked punt by Frankie Alvarez went out of bounds at
the Eagles' 24 yard line.
Most of the Loboes' yardage in the first series was at the expense of
the strong (left) side of the Eagles' defense. Monahans had first downs
on five straight plays after their first TD, with Roy Porras taking the
last one into the end zone from 13 yards out. The Loboes then drove down
to the Eagles' 13 on their next series before Mason Abila recovered a Porras
fumble to end the drive.
Pecos' second team fared a little bit better on defense, though it took
a fumble recovery on the one yard line to keep Monahans out of the end
zone again. "The one ref signaled touchdown, but he didn't see the ball
come out. That's why he changed it," Grubbs said.
But the Eagles' second team offense could manage just two first downs
on their next series. The Loboes also came away with a pair of interceptions
off Zembrano, though he would later hook up with Jason Payne for a 40-yard
gain on the final play of the night.
Before that, the Eagles' secondary allowed Hinojos a couple of easy
touchdown passes, missing coverage on a 60-yard bomb and a fourth-down
float pass of five yards to tight end Chris Adams.
Friday's scrimmage was the only one for Monahans, who'll begin their
1999 season this Friday against the Snyder Tigers. Pecos, meanwhile, gets
one more preseason tune-up, this Thursday at Greenwood, where they'll try
to correct Friday's mistakes.
"I told them if this isn't a wake-up call, I don't know what is," said
Grubbs, whose team opens regular season play on Sept. 2 against Denver
City at Odessa.
Pecos' freshmen, meanwhile, managed to both lose and win on Friday against
Monahans. The official freshman team was blanked by the Loboes' ninth graders,
3-0, but the Eagles had eight freshmen playing with the junior varsity
squad, and they accounted for both of the touchdowns in a 2-1 win over
the Loboes' JV.
Eddie Mata caught a five-yard touchdown pass from Peter Juarez on the
first series, after setting up the score with a 53 yard run, and Robbie
Ontiveros scored on a 35-yard pass from quarterback Matthew Levario on
the second series, before Monahans got their only TD late in the final
series.
The freshmen gave up two TDs in their first defensive series and a final
one on a goal line series at the end of the scrimmage. The JVs did not
run a goal line series.
Eagles serve up 3rd at Sandhills
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
MONAHANS, Aug. 23 -- Spikes are more exciting, but serves were just
as important for the Pecos Eagles, both on the plus and minus side, on
Saturday at the Sandhills Tournament in Monahans.
Pecos won third place Saturday night, defeating District 2-4A rival
Clint by 15-4, 15-9 final scores. Monica Meza served out 10 straight points
in Game 1 before the Lions even got their first serve attempt, but by the
end of Game 2, it was Clint's inability to get their serves over that helped
the Eagles to hold on for the victory.
Four hours earlier, the Eagles were the team that couldn't handle the
serves of Denver City's Jennifer Boyd, as the Mustangs rallied from 7-3
and 9-0 deficits to beat Pecos by 15-11, 15-13 final scores in the tournament
semifinals.
Clint showed they can give Pecos problems when district play begins,
as the Lions' Colleen Bramblett, Michelle Tullins and Polly Wagner were
doing a better job of spiking the ball than the Eagles' hitters by the
time the match was over. But Clint could never take advantage, serving
the ball into the net or out of bounds over half a dozen times.
"They (Clint) played a tough match against El Paso Americas, that went
three games and they probably went flat," Eagles' coach Becky Granado said
about the Lions' slow start. "I don't know what it is but every team up
until now has had trouble with our serves."
Pecos got some kills out of middle hitter Philonicus Fobbs and outside
hitter Ashley Salcido in both games, and even got one hit from their setter,
Amy Chabarria, to break serve during the second game against Clint. But
Granado said the Eagles will have to get harder spikes from their other
outside hitters in the future.
"They've got to realize that when Philly gets a couple of hits that
opens up the outside, and my outside hitters are going to have to come
through," Granado said.
Against Denver City, the Eagles and the Mustangs both had their own
unforced errors at the outset. Denver City's mistakes allowed the Eagles
to go up by four points twice, the last on a tip by Fobbs. The Eagles still
led by a 9-6 score when Boyd went to serve and caused Pecos all kinds of
problems, scoring aces both before and after a time out, as part of a 7-0
run. Pecos got to within 13-11 before going out off bad hits by Salcido
and Fobbs.
The Eagles rolled out to a 9-0 lead in the second game, with Crystal
Garcia and Dee Dee Molinar scoring off kills, to go along with several
unforced errors by Denver City. But once again, when Boyd went to the server's
position, the Eagles fell apart, as the Mustangs went on a 12-0 run, taking
the lead off a Amy Garcia spike.
"We don't know how to put games away right now. We get a 9-0 lead and
mess around with not killing serves and give the other team all the opportunity
to get back into the game," Granado said.
Pecos actually regained some of their focus after a lineup error kept
both Fobbs and Chabarria from returning to the game, after being removed
for the third time with Pecos trailing, 12-9. That forced Molinar into
the full-time setter's role and put junior D'Andra Ortega on the back line,
but instead of falling apart, the Eagles held on for nearly two full rotations.
They cut the margin to 14-13 off kills by Salcido and Molinar before Denver
City broke serve and ended it, on a Gwen Wilson block of Molinar.
"D'Andra did a good job, considering she'd never been back there, but
we shouldn't have been in that position," Granado said.
Americas, the team Pecos defeated to open pool round play on Friday
at Monahans came back to win the tournament title over Denver City. The
Eagles swept Americas and Fort Stockton in their pool round games, and
opened play Saturday with a 15-7, 15-1 win over Kermit. Molinar, Salcido,
Alexa Marquez and Leslie Brown all has ace serves in the victory, and Pecos
scored the final 13 points of Game 2 to complete the sweep.
Pecos' junior varsity and freshmen teams were also in Monahans over
the weekend, with the JV placing second in their division, losing to the
host Loboes in the tournament finals. Pecos' freshman gold team won consolation
in the ninth grade tournament, while the Eagles' purple team ended up losing
the fifth place game to Andrews.
Pecos' varsity will take it's 3-2 season record into Midland on Tuesday,
for matches against the Lee Rebels and Snyder Tigers. The Eagles then come
home for their only matches in Pecos until late September, in the Cantaloupe
Classic Tournament, which runs Thursday through Saturday.
Rangers host Yankes after sweeping Sox
ARLINGTON, Texas, Aug. 23 (AP) — Now that they've affected the wild card
race, the Texas Rangers are setting their sights on the New York Yankees.
The Rangers wrapped up the season series against playoff-hopeful Boston
on Sunday night with a 6-0 victory over the Red Sox.
Rafael Palmeiro homered and drove in two runs and Aaron Sele scattered
eight hits as the Rangers beat the Red Sox for a third-game sweep, dropping
the Red Sox one game behind Oakland in the AL wild-card race.
Texas and AL East-leading New York open a three-game series tonight
at The Ballpark in Arlington, with the Yankees having won six of the first
nine meetings this season.
New York knocked Texas out of the playoffs last year and in 1996.
"We've played them close," said Rangers manager Johnny Oates. "It's
how you pitch and how they pitch. Their pitching shut down our offense
in the playoffs last year, but I think we play well against them."
Texas is trying to overtake the Yankees and Cleveland Indians for the
league's best record and home field advantage in the playoffs.
The Yankees will be trying to control Palmeiro.
"I'm just enjoying the streak I'm in right now," said Palmeiro, who
tied single-season club records for homers and RBIs by a left-handed hitter.
"I don't know anything about these records until you guys (reporters) tell
me. I have no idea why (he's on such a streak). I just want to keep winning."
Palmeiro's sixth-inning solo homer was his 37th of the season, matching
his Rangers record for a left-handed hitter set in 1993. His 117 RBIs equal
Al Oliver's team left-handed mark set in 1980.
Palmeiro also set a team record with 29 RBIs in August, and tied Juan
Gonzalez's 1992 team record with his 12th homer in August. His 351st homer,
which extended the Rangers' lead to 4-0, tied him with Dick Allen for 53rd
place on the career list.
In the last seven games, he has seven homers and 17 RBIs. Over the series
with Boston, Palmeiro finished with four homers and nine RBIs.
"Good month?" said Rangers manager Johnny Oates on Palmeiro's August.
"How about a good year. He's right on everything, whether it's a knuckleball
or a fastball. It's a great time for him to have it."
Youth soccer, aerobics start registrations
PECOS, Aug. 23 -- The Reeves County Community Recreation Department is
taking applications for youth soccer, and will be starting a low impact
aerobics class.
The class will begin next Monday, Aug. 30, at 7:30 p.m. at the old Pecos
High School gym.
The youth soccer league will begin at a later date, and parents wishing
to register their children can pick up forms at the recreation department's
office in the old gym weekdays after 5 p.m.
For further information, call 447-9776.
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
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 1999 by Pecos Enterprise
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