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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Thursday, October 10, 2002
Eagles, Jackets look for new starts in 4-3A opener
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Neither the Pecos Eagles nor the Kermit Yellowjackets had a pre-district
to remember during the 2002 football season. But both teams have a chance
to turn things around Friday night, when the Eagles travel to Kermit to
face the Jackets in the District 4-3A opener for both teams.
It's the first time in 26 years the teams have faced each other as district
rivals, though they've been playing non-district games regularly since the
mid-1980s. Last season, the Eagles needed an 85-yard scoring drive in the
final 2:22 of the game to beat Kermit, 25-24, after the Jackets had jumped
out to an early 14-0 lead, and led 24-13 with 7½ minutes to play.
Kermit ended up winning only once last season, and had just two wins
in 2000. But after losing their District 4-3A openers to Crane, Monahans
and Alpine that season, the Jackets defeated Fort Stockton and Presidio
in their final two regular season games, and won a tie-breaker over the
Panthers and Bucks to make the playoffs.
Coming back after bad starts is what both Pecos and Kermit will be trying
to do starting on Friday. Both teams are 1-4 on the season, the Eagles after
their 49-7 loss at home to Lubbock High a week ago, while the Jackets took
last week off after their 30-13 loss to Denver City.
"We were beat up against Denver City," said Jackets' coach Glen Jones,
who said the bye week has allowed him to give several injured players two
weeks rest to get healthy. "Had it been a district game a couple of kids
would have played, but we held them out for the extra week."
Kermit's other losses were to Ozona, Seminole and Reagan County, while
their win came by a 22-21 score over Brownfield, which turned around the
following week and defeated the Eagles by a 13-6 final score.
"We need to get a win," said Eagles' coach Fred Carter. "We've pretty
much been trying to instill in the kids that everybody's record is 0-0,
and that this is the season that counts."
"We're confident the kids can play with them," said Carter, who was forced
to sit out several players last week for disciplinary reasons, while running
back Matthew Levario was held out to recover from a thigh bruise suffered
in Pecos' 38-7 loss at Crane two weeks ago. Levario ran for 189 yards last
year against Kermit and caught a key fourth down pass from quarterback Freddy
Torres on the Eagles' winning touchdown drive.
One player the Eagles won't be getting back is all-district offensive
lineman Tony Trujillo. "We lost Tony for the year with a broken foot," Carter
said. "He stepped in one of those gopher holes out on the practice field."
Carter said Victor Reyes would take Trujillo's spot on the offensive
line.
The Eagles were held to one-yard rushing and 52 yards total offense last
week against Lubbock High, and have been burnt both on the ground and through
the air by Crane and Lubbock High in the past two weeks. The story has been
the same for Kermit, which allowed over 400 yards rushing in their opening
loss to Ozona, and gave up three touchdown passes in their last game against
Denver City.
"We're just about in the same boat," Jones said of the two teams. "We're
running a new defense this year (split-6) and I've taken over the calling
the defensive plays, but we're still trying to get the cobwebs out of it."
Jones said on offense, Kermit has gone with sophomore Landon Forga as
the starter after he split time with junior Lupe Munoz early in the season.
"The junior is probably the better athlete, but the sophomore has made the
better decisions," Jones said. Forga had two touchdown passes in Kermit's
last second loss to Seminole back on Sept. 13.
"He throws pretty decently, and gets it to a number of receivers," Carter
said. Hunter Hardaway had the two TD catches against Seminole, while Munoz
and Chris Bennett are his other targets.
At running back, the Jackets also have used a couple of players, J.R.
Hernandez and Erby Sauceda. "Both of them also start on defense, so they
when they spent time on offense they usually split series," Jones said.
"They run that one-back offense and run a lot of misdirection out of that,"
Carter said. "We have four films on them so we know what they can do."
Defensively, Jones said Sauceda and Tanner Gill at the tackles have been
among his best players so far in 2002. "We've got 16-17 starters back, but
most of them started as sophomores, so we've got a lot of experience, but
we're still young," he said. "But I definitely think we're a better team
at this point of the season than we were last year."
After Friday's game, the Eagles get an unplanned one-week break because
of Presidio's decision not to play a varsity schedule this season. That will
give Pecos an automatic victory, but the loss of that game means three of
the Eagles' four district contests this season will be on the road.
Pecos, Kermit cutting back sub-varsity grid games
A shortage of players after the six-week grading period has left the
Pecos Eagles' sub-varsity football teams with only three games on the schedule
today against the Kermit Yellowjackets.
Pecos' junior varsity and freshman teams will be combined for a 6 p.m.
game this evening against Kermit, while the junior high teams will play
5 and 6:30 p.m. games on the Jackets' home field.
The JV and freshman teams were combined last week, and lost an 18-6 game
to Fort Stockton, leaving the JV with a 3-2 mark on the season. Pecos led
in the game 6-0 on a Jose Garcia touchdown, but saw the Panthers tie the
game by halftime and score twice in the final two periods.
The eighth graders are still seeking their first victory of the season,
after losing in Fort Stockton last week by a 20-0 final score. It left the
eighth grade purple team with an 0-4 record. The seventh grade purple team
is 1-2-1 after losing at Fort Stockton, 36-0.
Pecos, seventh and eighth grade gold teams played last week, and lost
by 6-0 and 16-8 scores.
Pecos' sub-varsity teams are still scheduled to play their games next
week against Presidio, even though the varsity football game against the
Blue Devils has been cancelled.
Rec department soccer sign-ups
The Reeves County Community Sports and Recreation Department is signing
up boys and girls for youth soccer between now and next Saturday, Oct. 19.
The leagues are open to boys and girls ages 4½ to 14. Parents can
pick up enrollments forms at the Recreation Department office in the old
Pecos High School gym during office hours. Entry fee is $10 per child, and
forms must have the signature of both parents and a birth certificate also
must be provided.
For further information, call the recreation department at 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 2002 by Pecos Enterprise
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