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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Monday, June 25, 2001
Mag forecasts Eagles, Bears as runners-up
The Pecos Eagles and Balmorhea Bears are both picked to finish second in
their districts in football for the 2001 season, according to Dave Campbell's
Texas Football, which arrived in stores late last week.
The Fabens Wildcats, who placed third in District 2-4A last season,
are favored over Pecos to win the District 2-4A title this time around,
while the Sanderson Eagles are tabbed to win the District 8-A six man again
in 2001, with the Bears picked as the other district playoff team.
Fabens is favored based on the return of Class 4A-leading rusher Vicente
Macias and quarterback Rigo Estrada. Macias ran for over 2,200 yards in
11 games last season, when Fabens placed third in District 2-4A. He gained
134 yards last year against Pecos, in a 21-20 victory by the Eagles over
the Wildcats.
The Eagles wound up second to El Paso Mountain View in the 2-4A standings
a year ago, after being picked fourth by Texas Football over the summer.
Pecos ended up 6-5 on the season and lost to El Paso Parkland in the bi-district
round of the playoffs, and return about half their starters from last year's
squad.
The Canutillo Eagles, who shared the district title with Pecos in 1998
but have struggled on offense the last two seasons, are picked third by
the magazine, and would be the Division I (big school) representative in
the Class 4A playoffs.
Among other Class 4A teams, Andrews is favored to win the District 4-4A
title and is the only West Texas team ranked in Texas Football's Top 25,
coming in as the No. 25 team in the state. Ennis is ranked No. 1 overall
in 4A and Stephenville is ranked as the top team out of Region I-4A, coming
in at No. 3.
El Paso Riverside is favored in District 1-4A and is picked to be Pecos'
bi-district round opponent by Texas Football. El Paso Ysleta and El Paso
Parkland are picked to finish second and third. The same three teams made
the playoffs out of 1-4A last season.
Sanderson is ranked No. 4 in Texas Football's preseason six-man grid
poll, and return five of their six starters on both offense and defense,
led by running back John Benavides. Balmorhea has four of their six starters
back from last year's team, which finished second and then lost to Grandfalls
in the bi-district round of the six-man playoffs.
Panther Creek and Whitharral are ranked 1-2 in the pre-season poll.
Ackerly-Sands and Grady are picked to be Balmorhea and Sanderson's bi-district
opponents this season by the magazine.
Among other area districts, Crane is favored too beat out Monahans for
the District 4-3A title, with Alpine picked to finish third in that district.
With enrollment numbers listed by Texas Football at 348 and 360, both Crane
and Alpine could be dropping down from Class 3A to Class 2A after this
season, while Pecos and Fabens have the smallest enrollment numbers of
any of the 96 schools picked to make the playoffs out of Class 4A, and
the Eagles could be dropping into Class 3A with Monahans, Fort Stockton,
Kermit and Presidio after this coming season.
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 2000 by Pecos Enterprise
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