|
Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Friday, August 17, 2001
Eagles scrimmage in Cavemen's lair
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
A full year running the option offense figures to make a difference
in execution for the Pecos Eagles during the 2001 football season. But
they'll get their first test of that on Saturday, when they travel to Carlsbad
to face the Cavemen in their only preseason scrimmage.
Pecos and Carlsbad will scrimmage on the varsity and junior varsity
level, starting at 11 a.m. CDT. Coach Gary Grubbs said the JV would probably
go first with their scrimmage, followed by the varsity match-up.
"We'll go 20 plays with the first season on both sides, offense and
defense, then we'll go 15 plays with the second group and just play it
from there," Grubbs said. "Last year we did a quarter of live (conditions)
and we may do something like that again this year."
What the Eagles don't want is a repeat of last year's scrimmage results.
They were beaten by the Cavemen in Pecos six touchdowns to one, and struggled
both with their pass defense, especially over the middle, and in trying
to run the option offense for the first time.
The Eagles improved their offense as the season went on, while the Cavemen
went on to hammer Pecos' former district rival Andrews during the regular
season, showing the 6-1 score had as much to do with what Carlsbad had
in their lineup as the problems the Eagles had with their squad.
This season, the Cavemen will be trying to replace running back Travis
Gates and quarterback Pete Subia, both of whom had big games against Pecos
a year ago. They do have receiver Ryan French back, and Grubbs said, "Coach
(Kirk) Potter said they'll probably throw the ball more this year."
Both teams have held one intrasquad scrimmage, the Cavemen last Saturday
and the Eagles this past Tuesday. Pecos scored four touchdowns in that,
three through the air to go along with a 62-yard touchdown run by junior
Matthew Levario.
Freddy Torres had two of the TD passes, and Grubbs said, "We'll probably
look at Freddy and Richard (Rodriguez) at quarterback. We won't look at
Peter (Juarez) because he's got a back muscle that keeps spasming." Juarez
is scheduled to play on defense, where he and Rodriguez are moving from
the cornerback slots to the strong and free safety positions.
Along with Levario at tailback, the Eagles will get back fullback Mason
Abila, who missed the 2000 season, while at receiver, the Eagles return
Jason Gonzales. "We've got Jason and John Parent to play out there, and
we'll look at Ricky Plummer and Abel Lopez."
Up front, Grubbs and assistant coach Elias Payan said Tomas Valles,
Max Miaranda, Trey Edwards, Tony Trujillo and Job Navarette would probably
go on the first series, while at tight end, "We're looking at three people,
Joey Ortega, John Saenz and Justin Evans."
Evans is also one of two strong side linebackers the Eagles will be
looking at Saturday, along with Sammy Gonzales. Abila is scheduled to play
in the middle and Chris Lara and Bobby Valenzuela are the weak side linebackers.
All are new from last year.
The line is also mostly new, with holdovers Jose Loa at defensive end
and Jaime Herrera at tackle. Chris Orona and Will Armstrong are the others
expected to start at tackle and end, while Plummer, who split time at cornerback
last year, will be joined by Oscar Parada.
"We're going to look at everyone, so nothing's set yet. In the secondary,
we'll also look at Jason Gonzales, Alex Lopez, John Parent and Matthew
Levario, and hopefully we'll get Ruvel (Carrasco) back some time," Grubbs
said.
Carrasco separated his shoulder in practice and will be going to Midland
on Saturday for an examination while the rest of the Eagles head to Carlsbad.
The Eagles also will be without lineman Gabriel Huertas, who is injured,
and lineman Jae Ewing is out for an indefinite period with mononucleosis.
While the varsity and JV teams go to Carlsbad, the freshman Eagles will
scrimmage the Cavemen in Pecos on Saturday. The freshman and JV will open
their 2001 seasons on Aug. 31 against Kermit, while the varsity hosts the
Yellowjackets the following night in their season opener.
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
|
