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Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Chargers jump on Bears early in 59-12 win
The Balmorhea Bears were unable to come up with their second victory of the 2006 football season on Friday night in Midland, as the Midland Trinity Chargers picked up their first win of the year, beating the Bears by a 59-12 final score.
Trinity jumped out to a 39-6 lead after the first period, and was able to end the game at halftime under the 45-point rule. Preston Midkiff ran for four touchdowns and 164 yards, scoring twice in the first two minutes of play. Balmorhea would cut the lead to 15-6 two minutes later when Adrian Roman pulled in a 36-yard touchdown pass from Brandon Mendoza, but Midkiff would score again less than 30 seconds later on a 62-yard run.
He would add another score from a yard out, and Bill Watts would score from six yards away in the closing minute of the period. In the second quarter, Midland widened its lead to 46-6 on a 13-yard run by Jeremy Harris. A run by Sean Enloe with 3:07 left before the half made it 46-12, but the Chargers came back with a 40-yard run by Thomas Shelton, then ended the game at halftime thanks to a 5-yard run by Harris with 21 seconds left in the second period.
Balmorhea hurt itself with three loss fumbles, and gained almost all of their 136 yards in offense through the air. The loss leaves the Bears with a 1-3 record going into their game at home this Friday night against Imperial. The Longhorns defeated Paint Creek on Friday by a 58-12 score and are 3-1 on the season.
Swimmers down Stockton in season opener
Pecos Eagles swimming coach Terri Morse got her first look at a number of new swimmers, and a look at some of her returning ones in new events on Saturday, as the Eagles opened their 2006-07 season with a win over Fort Stockton.
Pecos’ girls scored a 102-35 win over Fort Stockton while the boys defeated the Panthers by a 133 1/2 to 40 1/2 margin. And while the times for several of the returning Eagle swimmers didn’t match their best times from a year ago, Morse said, “most of the younger ones cut their times, and some of the kids who swam before didn’t swim their best events.
“I thought they did all right for early in the season and this being their first meet,” she said. “We still have a long ways to go and we’re not nearly where we need to be come January.”
Fort Stockton was short on swimmers on the girls’ side, which left the Eagles competing against each other in several races, and in the 200-yard medley and 400-yard freestyle relays.
Freshman Anatalia Hernandez won both of her races on Saturday. She edged teammate Niki Lindemann by just over 1 1/2 seconds to win the 100-yard butterfly with a 1:20.15 time, and then beat out teammate Cynthia Marmolejo by just over a second to win the 500-yard freestyle with a 6:57.77 time.
“I was impressed with Anatalia, but I thought all of our freshmen did well,” Morse said.
Earlier, Marmolejo had won the 200-yard freestyle with a 2:37.58 time. The girls also got three other first place individually, from Cassandra Mata, who won the 100-yard backstroke with a 1:17.68 time, after she had placed second to Fort Stockton’s Maria Ulloa in the 50 free, Neyva Rodriguez, with a 1:07.28 in the 1200 fly, after she was third in the 50 free; and from Stephanie Lucas, in the 200 individual medley with a 3:13.20 time. Lucas finished second to Mata in the 100 backstroke.
Other finishes for the girls includes a second by Adrianna Roman in the 200 free; a second by Jessica Dickenson in the 200 medley; a third by Roman in the 100 fly; a second by Lindemann in the 100 yard breaststroke and a third by Dickenson in the same event.
In the relays, Lucas, Dickenson, Hernandez and Roman swam at 2:29.31 in the 200 medley; Lindemann, Rodriguez, Marmolejo and Mata won the 200 freestyle with a 2:05.35 time and the same four won the 400 free with a 4:46.60 time, while the ‘B’ relay of Hernandez, Lucas, Dickenson and Roman had a 5:05.87 time.
The boys won the 200 medley relay with Kyle Winkles, Matthew Oglesby, Josh Elliott and Matthew Florez swimming a 1:52.49. The same four also won the 400 freestyle relay with a 3:42.90 time, while Florez, Elliott, Luke Serrano and Derek Teague won the 200 free relay with a 1:43.30 time.
The Eagles also had ‘B’ and ‘C’ relay teams in the freestyle relays, while in the medley relay, the ‘B’ team of Brian Carrasco, Austin Vernon, Adam Medina and Hector Roman placed third. In the 200 freestyle, Frankie Morin, Gus Mendoza, Jose Gonzales and Roman were third and Medina, Vernon, Oscar Machuca and Edward Navarro were fourth, while in the 400 freestyle, Teague, Morin, Mendoza and Serrano were second and Gonzales, Navarro, Carrasco and Roman were fourth.
Individually, Oglesby won the 200 individual medley with a 2:14.75 time and took the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:01.19, Winkles won the 50 free in 23.12 and took the 100 free with a 53.12 time; Serrano won the 500 free with a 6:05.71 time and took the 100 backstroke with a 1:08.10; Teague took the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:14.59 and tied Fort Stockton’s Jay Orona for second in the 50 free with a 26.11 time; Carrasco won the 200 free with a 2:18.53 time and Roman won the 1-meter diving with a score of 178.95 points.
Other finishes for Pecos included a second by Medina and a third by Vernon in the 200 freestyle; a second by Mendoza and a third by Navarro in the 200 medley; a sixth by Machuca in the 50 free; a second by Gonzales in the 1-meter diving; a fifth by Medina in the 100 fly; a second by Florez and a third by Morin in the 100 free; a second be Mendoza a third by Navarro in the 500 free; a second by Morin and a fourth by Carrasco in the 100 backstroke and a fifth by Vernon and a sixth by Machuca in the 100 yard breaststroke.
Pecos’ next meet will be on Oct. 7 at the Lubbock Relays, after which they’ll return home to host Monahans in dual meet on Oct. 12. “Right now I don’t know where I’m going to swim everybody,” Morse said of the future meets. “Some of them may swim in the same events they swam today, and some may not.”
Mustangs’ air attack too much for Eagles
In a game where big defensive plays were few and far between, the team that did the least to sabotage their own drives came away the winner.
Unfortunately for the Pecos Eagles, that was the Denver City Mustangs, who collected most of their mistakes on offense into the latter part of the second quarter, while scoring twice before that and three times in the second half, on the way to a 35-25 homefield win over the Eagles on Friday night.
The Mustangs threw for over 200 yards and three scores, while running back Clifton Powell broke loose from Pecos tacklers for 81 of his 84 yards in the second half to help Denver City maintain their lead, and rack up 346 yards on offense against the Eagles.
“They had too much speed on the outside, and they really hurt us with the pass,” said Eagles’ coach Chris Henson, who added after watching the films on Saturday that the team also had some problems getting into the right defense several times against the Mustangs.
“Our linebackers were in too tight, and a couple of times we had some people lined up in man (coverage) and some were in zone,” he said. “If we can get all that straightened out, we’ll be all right.”
Pecos couldn’t win despite 398 yards in total offense thanks to seven penalties, six on offense, and two interceptions, the first of which set up Denver City’s first touchdown of the night. Chris Rodriguez picked off a pass meant for Luis Ortega and returned it to the Eagles’ 26, one play after Pecos’ defense had forced a Denver City punt.
“He tried to force it in on that one,” said Henson. “On the other one, it was a timing route and the kid just broke on it. He just had a poor read and should have tried to throw to the tight end on top.”
Chris Poe’s pickoff came in the second period, after Denver City had taken a 16-6 lead, and set the Mustangs up on the Pecos 22. But that was the one series where Denver City hurt itself, getting procedure and an illegal block penalties that moved them back outside the 35, where Drew Middleton was picked off by Lucas Macha on an attempted receiver throwback pass to quarterback Ethan Summers.
Summers fared far better as a passer than as a pass catcher, going 12-for-18 for 218 yards and three touchdowns, all to Brittan Golden, who beat three different Pecos cornerbacks for his scores. He out-jumped Timo Reyes for his first touchdown, a 9-yard pass in the first period after Rodriguez’s interception, then broke the tackle of Jeremy Martinez on a sideline pass on a first down play from the Denver City 42 and raced 58 yards for a score to make it 28-12, then did the same thing to Macha on a 4th-and-2 from the Pecos 43 on the first play of the fourth quarter, after the Eagles had cut the lead to 28-19.
Aside from the interceptions, the Eagles stopped themselves once when Zubeldia fumbled a 3rd-and-1 snap from the Pecos 37 on the opening drive of the game, and did in two other scoring chances thanks to a series of penalties, though Henson said after watching the game film some of the calls were questionable.
“On the screen pass they called (holding) against Ruben (Salgado) and he only has one hand,” said Henson, referring to the cast the Eagles’ center is wearing due to a broken left hand.
When the Eagles weren’t stopping themselves with penalties, Denver City was having problems stopping Pecos’ rushing game. Ortega had his third 200-plus yard rushing game of the season and his second in three years against Denver City, finishing with 209 yards on 32 carries, while Hector Ramirez added another 90 yards rushing, his best total of the season.
Ramirez caught an 11-yard pass from Zubeldia on a 3rd-and-10 play to start off the Eagles’ first scoring drive, and he, Zubeldia and Xavier Tercero had runs to set up Ortega’s first score, from eight yards out on a 4th-and-1 play late in the first period. Denver City kept they lead after a two point conversion following Golden’s first TD, and kept the lead when Zubledia threw high to Robert Nunez after Ortega’s TD.
Ramirez got 36 of his 90 rushing yards on Pecos’ second scoring drive, which was capped off by a one-yard dive by Ortega seven seconds before halftime. Pecos was able to survive a fumble by Ortega three plays earlier that was recovered by Michael Lee, one of five fumbles on the night for Pecos they were able to recover.
Pecos was able to shut down Denver City’s running game in the first half, holding the Mustangs to just 24 yards. But that changed in the final two quarters, after an injury to Rodriguez left Powell and Summers as the Mustangs’ main backs. Powell’s only carry in the first half was on Denver City’s second touchdown, a 3-yard run early in the second period that was the Mustangs first rushing TD of the season. But in the second half he would elude or break Eagle tackles several times, while helping to set up two of his team’s final three scores.
The big play on the first drive was a 16-yaard run by Powell on a 4th-and-1 from the Pecos 47. Summers would run for 17 yards on the next play, and Powell then went around the left end 14 yards for his second score. He would then run for seven yards and a first down one play before Summers and Golden hooked up for their second score.
“I thought at halftime they were the ones who were tired and sucking air, but they made the plays and we didn’t,” said Henson. “They just pretty much did what they wanted to in the second half.”
Down 28-12, Ortega answered Golden’s second TD with his third score of the night, a 55-yard run with 2:43 left in the third period. His last score came after Martinez kept Pecos’ drive going by recovering an Ortega fumble on a 15-yard run, and came from a yard out with 6:31 to play. He also had a 14-yard pass play from Zubeldia, while Ramirez ran for eight yards just prior to Ortega’s score.
Pecos then tried for two points, but the had a Zubeldia pass picked off by Doug Gohery. The Eagles then failed on an onsides kick try, and while they would stop Denver City on downs at the 25, were left with just 3:24 on the clock. Zubeldia and Martinez would hook up for 19- and 28-yard pass plays, but the hold called on Salgado wiped out an eight yard screen pass to Ramirez, and Michael Ramirez would sack the Eagles’ quarterback on 4th-and-15 to end Pecos’ final scoring chance.
Both teams are 2-2 on the season, with the Eagles starting District 1-3A play this Friday night with their 2006 homecoming game, against the Anthony Wildcats. Anthony petitioned to move up from Class 2A to 3A this season and is 4-0 after a 53-16 win over Academia Juarez.
Monahans, Clint and Tornillo also stayed unbeaten on Friday. Monahans scored a 49-25 win over Andrews, Clint defeated El Paso Mountain View, 34-14, and Tornillo won over Fort Hancock, 20-6. Fort Stockton lost its first game of 2006, losing to Seminole by a 24-10 score, while Fabens is 1-3 after a 20-14 loss to El Paso Cathedral.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 432-445-5475, FAX 432-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
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