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Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Friday, October 24, 2008
Pecos swimmers sweep Monahans
The Pecos Eagles’ swim team scored a sweep of all events on the girls’ side and won 10 of 12 on the boys side on Tuesday, in a dual meet against Monahans at the Pecos High School pool.
The girls won by a 109-58 margin over Monahans and the boys out-pointed the Loboes, 113-60, with one of their two losses coming due to a disqualification.
“We had some pretty good swims tonight, and some lifetime bests,” Eagles’ coach Terri Morse said. “Even some of the ones that swam different races than they normally do swam personal bests.”
Alyson Reynolds, Adrianna Roman and Conner Armstrong each had a pair of individual wins along with first place finishes as part of two of the Eagles’ three ‘A’ relay teams. Reynolds won the 200 individual medley in 2:24.18 and the 100-yard breaststroke with a 1:15.58 time. Roman won the 50 free with a 28-52 time and took the 500 free with a 6:03.28 time, while Armstrong’s wins came in the 100 free, with a 1:01.70 time, and the 100 backstroke, with a time of 1:10 flat.
Lauren Elliott and Alexcia Mendoza won the other individual races for Pecos. Elliott took the 200 free with a 2:14.82 time and was later second in the 100 backstroke, while Mendoza was first in the 100-yard butterfly with a 1:10.69 time and placed second in the 200 medley. In the relays, Armstrong, Reynolds, Mendoza and Anatalia Hernandez won the 200 medley with a 2:07.24 time; Hernandez, Mendoza, Elliott and Roman took the 200 free with a 1:55.54 time; and Roman, Elliott, Armstrong and Reynolds won the 400 free, with a time of 4:12.54.
The girls were also able to field ‘B’ relays in the 200 medley and 400 freestyle races on Tuesday. Tiffany Hunter, Victoria Machuca, Maggie Hernandez and Dakota Hegar placed third in the medley relay and in the 400 free relay. Individually, Anatalia Hernandez was second in the 200 freestyle and the 100 fly; Maggie Hernandez was third in the 500 freestyle and fourth in the 200 free; Hegar placed second in the 50 free and the 100 free; Hunter was fourth in the 100 backstroke and fifth in the 100 free; and Machuca was fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke and sixth in the 500 free.
On the boys’ side, Josh Elliott, Carlos Navarro, Gus Mendoza and Edward Navarro won the 200 medley relay with a 1:51.62 time and Mendoza, Frankie Morin, Tanner Hardwick and Derek Teague took the 200 free relay with a 1:44.60 time. The Navarros, Teague and Elliott also appeared to win the 400 free relay, but were disqualified for re-entering the pool before the race was over.
“They know better than that,” Morse said, while adding, “Our boys’ relay was a little bit slower than they were in Abilene, while our girls’ relay went a little faster, but we didn’t have Alexcia there.”
Individually, Elliott and Edward Navarro each ended up two wins, Elliott in the 500 free with a 5:24.72 time, and the 100 backstroke, with a 59.33 time; while Navarro took the 50 free with a 24.98 time and the 100 free, with a 55.71 time. Four other Eagles placed first in one event, as Carlos Navarro took the 200 free with a 2:01.69 time; Mendoza won the 200 medley with a 2:22.08 time; Teague won the 100 breaststroke with a 1:12.17 time; and Tanner Hardwick took first in 1-meter diving, with a 167.95 point score.
Pecos’ other finishes included a third by Abraham Lujan and a fifth by Clay Teague in the 200 free; a second by Morin and a fifth by Tye Hegar in the 200 medley; a third by Derek Teague in the 50 free; a second by Mendoza and a third by Hardwick in the 100 fly; a third by Chase Price and a fourth by Luis Villescas in the 100 free; a second by Carlos Navarro and a fourth by Lujan in the 500 free; a second by Morin and a fifth by Clay Teague in the 100 backstroke and a second by Hegar in the 100 breaststroke. In 1-meter diving, Gregory Roman placed second to Hardwick.
In the ‘B’ relays, Pecos also had one disqualification, in the 200 free, while in the 400 free Hegar, Lujan, Roman and Austin Demor placed second, and in the 200 medley relay, Morin, Hegar, Hardwick and Roman placed third.
Tuesday’s dual meet was the only one this week for Pecos. Their next meet is Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at the Big Spring Invitational, and they’ll have three more dual meets with Monahans in November and December, in the Loboes’ pool and at Andrews and Fort Stockton.
Eagles host struggling Coyotes for homecoming
As much as the Pecos Eagles football team may have struggled through the first six games of the 2008 season, their problems have been small compared to those of the Tornillo Coyotes.
The Eagles, who picked up their first win of 2008 last week by a 61-14 score in Fabens, will play their 2008 homecoming game on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. against Tornillo, which fell to 0-7 on the season last week with a 83-0 loss to the Fort Stockton Panthers. That came after a 50-7 loss the previous week against Anthony, the team Pecos faces next Friday, in their District 4-3A opener.
“They’ve got a lot of very young kids,” said Eagles’ coach Chris Henson. “They have a few talented spots. We watched them on tape against Anthony and it was only 6-0 after the first quarter, but they slowly pulled away from them.”
The Coyotes and Wildcats are the two smallest schools in Class 3A, and while Anthony was competitive enough to advance to the playoffs last season, Tornillo has gone winless in district each of the past two years, since petitioning the UIL to move up to Class 3A to cut down on travel costs.
But Tornillo did go unbeaten in pre-district play in 2006, and was 3-1 in their pre-district games last season, before things started falling apart by the end of the year. That included a 72-14 loss in Pecos to end the season, in which the Coyotes only suited up 14 players and finished the game with 11, and this year new head coach Eric Scogin has seen his team come close to a win only once, in a 14-0 loss to Academia Juarez.
However, two years ago the Eagles didn’t take the lead for good on the Coyotes until the final 3:06 to play, and eventually scored a 47-36 victory, and Henson doesn’t want to see that type of game play out again.
“I feel like if you let them stay in the ballgame early, they could stay with us after that,” he said. “Number 34, Danny Garcia is a good-looking kid who plays linebacker and tailback, and No. 12 (Cristian Trejo) has great feet. He doesn’t have as strong an arm, but he can throw the short routes accurately.”
Trejo and another freshman, Isaac Piredo, have alternated at quarterback, while the Coyotes’ other runner has been Jose Luis Sanchez, one of the few seniors on the team, who has run for 232 yards this year.
“He does a lot of sweep passes. We’ve watched him on three tapes we got, and he’s thrown about 6-7 sweep passes,” Henson said. “Tornillo’s going to try and do a lot of different things and run some trick plays, so we need to try and keep our kids in the right spots and not get caught out of position.”
He said the Coyotes had negative total yardage in their last game, and have had trouble picking up opposing defensive schemes. “He’s got eight freshmen listed on his roster, and it’s tough to play with freshmen kids,” Henson said.
Offensively, the Eagles picked up almost 500 yards last week in Fabens, after going over 400 the previous week in their 27-26 loss to Fort Stockton. Quarterback Paul Zubeldia threw for 262 yards and three touchdowns, after Pecos had stayed on the ground through most of their previous three games.
“We’re going to try and get an early lead. Our plan is to work on our basics and try to polish what we have,” Henson said.
Pecos made one change to their varsity roster this week, swapping sophomore Donovan Rodriguez with Stephen Apolinar on the junior varsity.
“We’re trying to get Donovan the ball more. He’s not getting very many carries right now up on the varsity, so we’ll bring Stephen Apolinar up and he’ll start in the wingback position probably the rest of the year.
“Everyone else on the JV we’ll leave down, so that only sophomores will have up will be Ariel (Salgado), and Larry Sparkman, and Isaiah (Patino) is still out with an injury,” he added.
This will be Tornillo’s third straight road game to start off District 4-3A play. They had been scheduled to host Fort Stockton a week ago, but we paid to move their game to Panther Stadium. After Friday, the Coyotes are on the road again next week, but for a much shorter trip to Clint, before finally playing a home game on Nov. 7 against Fabens to end the season.
Bears face Cougars after dropping district opener
The Sanderson Eagles were able to take a two touchdown lead over Balmorhea Bears in the second quarter last Friday, and made that lead stand up in the second half, as the Eagles beat the Bears in Balmorhea by a 52-36 final score.
The loss came in Balmorhea’s District 8-A Division II six-man football opener, while Sanderson improved to 2-0 after opening with a win over Sierra Blanca. The Bears will travel to Dell City on Friday night for a 7:30 p.m. game against the Cougars, who dropped their first district game this past Friday to Sierra Blanca, by a 96-49 final score.
The Bears held the early lead on Sanderson, though neither team scored on their first possession. Balmorhea opted to receive the opening kickoff and it was returned 30 yards by Jeremy Baeza . The Bears then connected for the first down with a 20-yard pass from Adam Roman to Jeremy Baeza, but were stopped short on their next four plays, as they failed to make a first down.
However, the Eagles first possession was short lived as RB Phillip Lascano fumbled and the Bears recovered the ball. Balmorhea then got an 11-yard run by Roman that led to a 1-yard touchdown run by Marcos Beltran . Ryan Mondragon’s extra point kick made the score 8-0 with 5:11 left in the first quarter.
Sanderson’s second possession was a six-play drive, which ended with a 14-yard touchdown run by Lascano, with the extra point kick tying the score at 8-8 with 2:20 left in the first quarter.
Balmorhea’s next possession ended on downs and included two penalties, and Sanderson immediately took the lead when running back Jonathan Brotherton broke for a 35-yard touchdown run.
The Eagles led 16-8 at the end of the first quarter, and the Bears’ next possession ended with a punt after a three and out situation.
Sanderson then went on the longest drive of the night, a 10-play drive for 68-yard effort capped by a 1-yard touchdown run by Lascano, to increase their lead 24-8 with 3:52 remaining in the first half.
This time, the Bears were able to answer back, with an eight-play drive that included a 17-yard run by Roman and a 35-yard pass from him to Mondragon for a touchdown. The Bears cut the lead to 24-16 with 24 seconds before the end of the first half, and kept it there, when a Sanderson pass just before halftime was intercepted by Nigel Lozano .
But the Eagles received the onside kickoff to begin the second half, and with good field position, built an eight-play scoring drive completed with a short pass from quarterback Jacob Benavides to Darren Seider for the touchdown , giving Sanderson a 30-16 lead with 6:52 left in the third quarter.
The Bears next series started after a touchback, and went 60 yards, finishing off with a 33-yard touchdown run by Roman . This score was one of the most exciting plays of the game as he used his skills to transverse the field-breaking many tackles as he spun his way into the end zone.
That got the Bears to within 30-22 with 3:42 left in the third quarter, but after the ensuing kickoff went out of bounds, giving Sanderson the ball at the 37-yard line, the Eagles needed just three plays to score, on a 28-yard touchdown run by Brotherton to make the score 38-22 with 2:27 remaining in the third quarter.
The Bears again started their next drive on the 20-yard line, and again were able to score, this time two plays later, when Roman connected with Mondragon for a 60-yard TD, making the score 38-28 with 2:03 left in the third quarter.
Sanderson then recovered another onside kick and found success rushing the ball as Lascano finished off an eight-play drive with a one-yard touchdown run. The Eagles would have their biggest lead, at 46-28 with 8:32 left in the last quarter, before the Bears cut the margin to 10 with a five-play, 43-yard drive that began with a 20-yard run by Roman, who rushed for 106 yards on the night . Roman, who passed for another 230 yards and two touchdowns, got his score on a three-yard TD pass to Jeremy Beaza, making it 46-36 with 6:19 left in the game.
The Bears then had a chance to get to within two when Sanderson’s Brotherton fumbled the kickoff and Alex Mendoza recovered the ball . But two plays later Balmorhea would fumble the ball, with the Eagles recovering.
Balmorhea then would stop Sanderson and force a punt, but the Bears came up short and the ball was turned over on downs at the Sanderson 12. The Eagles wasted no time as Lascano threw a 68-yard touchdown pass to up their lead to 52-36. Sanderson then stopped one final attempt by Balmorhea and then killed the final seconds off the clock.
“We played well and made several big plays,” Coach Debiase Mendoza said. “Mentally we had some mistakes and missed some blitzes we should have picked up, and just weren’t able to come out on top.”
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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