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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Thursday, October 23, 2003
Eagles looking to stop Loboes, find offense
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
The Monahans Loboes found their missing offense just in time to open
the District 4-3A portion of their 2003 football schedule. The Pecos
Eagles didn't.
Friday night at Eagle Stadium, Pecos will try to find their missing
offense in time to stay in the District 4-3A playoff race, when they
host the first place Loboes in a 7 p.m. start.
Monahans came into district play off a 7-0 shutout loss at Lamesa,
and having scored more than two touchdowns in only one game this
season. But in the past two games, the Loboes have racked up 69 points,
shocking sixth-ranked Greenwood in their 4-3A opener two weeks ago,
35-34, then racing out to a 27-0 lead on Fort Stockton in the first
half last Friday, before ending up with a 34-22 victory.
"It's improved immensely over the past three weeks," said Loboes'
head coach Larry Hanna. "It seems like our team always comes around at
this time of year."
The Eagles, meanwhile, were off last week, after losing their
district opener to Kermit by a 14-8 final score. It was the sixth game
out of seven so far in 2003 for Pecos that has been decided by eight
points or less, and the third time this season the Eagles' offense were
unable to take advantage of a fourth quarter turnover by their opponent
to take the lead.
The loss left Pecos with a 3-4 season record, while Monahans is 2-0
and 4-3, and can clinch a trip to the playoffs with a win on Friday.
Both teams have gone to a more pass-oriented type of offense this
season, and over the past two weeks Monahans has picked up over 700
yards, much of that through quarterback Kevin Kenyon. He leads the
district in passing with 1,164 yards and is now second on the team in
rushing with 260 yards.
"It's just a matter of them getting to know the offense and getting
all our kids going in the same direction," said Hanna. "We started off
against Lamesa moving the ball real well, but we just didn't finish it
off."
"When they played Lamesa they were doing the same thing they're
doing now," said Eagles' coach Patrick Willis, whose team gained under
100 yards, but scored three touchdowns in their Sept. 13 win at Lamesa.
"The key for us is don't get beaten by their lineman defensively and
line up and take care of our responsibilities."
"Their receivers were wide open against Greenwood," said Willis, who
played for Monahans when Hanna was an assistant coach there in the
mid-1980s. "Against Fort Stockton they did whatever they wanted to
early, until Fort Stockton got adjusted and made a run at them."
"It's more of a controlled passing game that we've run, with a lot
of close passes, but we will throw it long at any time," said Hanna.
Richard Covington, the defending district champ in the 100-meter dash,
has been the team's main receiver, with 14 catches for 257 yards and
two touchdowns, while Tyson Carter had caught nine passes for 200 yards
and a score. Both players also have carried the ball on reverses eight
times this season.
"Lately, they've been trying to run all their reverses to Tyson
Carter. I would have thought they would run it to Covington, but
anybody with that speed is still a threat," said Willis.
Monahans is led in rushing by Johnny Rodriguez, with 284 yards,
though he only has two touchdowns to seven for Kenyon.
"Johnny Rodriguez is probably in there more than anyone, along with
Dimas Porras. Those two carry more from the backfield," Hanna said.
Porras ran for two touchdowns and caught three passes a year ago, in
the Loboes' 29-0 win over the Eagles.
Hanna said on the line, center Lance Porter has been the team's
strongest lineman, while adding that tackles J.W. Burnett and Fermin
Vasquez, "came on and played real well the last couple of games."
Defensively, Monahans and Pecos' numbers are similar. The Loboes
gave up five touchdowns to Greenwood, but came up with a key stop at
the end of the game to preserve their win, and then shut down Fort
Stockton early last week, while building a four touchdown lead.
"Our defense really did a good job. We gave up a big run to (Wayne)
Jefferson in the second quarter of about 60 yards, but he can take it
to the house any time. In the third quarter we turned the ball over a
couple of times and gave them a short field," Hanna said.
"Their front seven is pretty good," said Willis. "They don't make a
lot of mistakes and they're well-disciplined.
"As always, the difference maker is going to have to be the
offensive line. They need to give us some time to take advantage of
some of the things we see," Willis said.
"Dimas Porras has been a solid leader all year long," Hanna said of
his linebacker, who returns along with middle linebacker Ben Swanson
after all-district seasons in 2002. He added that Jesus Pedroza in the
secondary and Vasquez and Ruben Arroyo on the line also have played
well.
Against Kermit, Willis moved Oscar Parada to quarterback for part of
the game, and he led the Eagles on a game-opening 64-yard scoring
drive, all of the yards coming on the ground. But Parada did not
complete a pass in the game, while Kermit's line was able to target
Saul Pina and Jose Reyes when they were in the game mainly to throw the
ball, and shut out Pecos the rest of the night.
The Eagles have had two weeks to work on those problems, and Willis
said the timing of the bye week was "Great. It gave us time to work on
a lot of fundamentals and to make the changes we need to make after a
three-game skid.
"In every game except Lubbock High we've been right there until the
end. It may not be just one thing, it may be a few things here and
there like a fumble or a pass interference call that moves them out
from their own end that slows us down, but we've been working on
correcting those problems."
Starting Lineups
Monahans Pecos
Offense Defense
QB ( 9) - Kevin Kenyon 160 DE (56) - Chad Evans 210
RB (30) - Johnny Rodriguez 160 DT (54) - Jacob Marquez 180
SE ( 4) - Richard Covington 155 DT (66) - Victor Reyes 165
WB (32) - Tyson Carter 150 DE (47) - Booker Fobbs 210
LT (70) - Fermin Vasquez 215 LB ( 5) - Alex Orosco 165
LG (51) - Fabien Hinojos 200 LB (32) - Eddie Vela 155
C (50) - Lance Porter 220 LB ( 7) - Aurelio Lopez 175
RG (77) - Ryan Munoz 260 CB ( 3) - Jaime Muela 140
RT (55) - J.W. Burnett 175 R ( 9) - John Parent 175
TE (81) - Ruben Arroyo 200 S ( 2) - Oscar Parada 180
WR ( 3) - Jimmy Wright 160 CB ( 6) - Simon Castillo 155
Defense Offense
DE (81) - Ruben Arroyo 200 QB (10) - Saul Pina 165
DT (70) - Fermin Vasquez 215 RB (22) - Rashad Terry 160
DT (63) - Tyrel Dutcher 202 SE ( 9) - John Parent 175
DE (55) - J.W. Burnett 175 WB ( 2) - Oscar Parada 180
LB (24) - Dimas Porras 205 LT (56) - Chad Evans 210
LB (72) - Ben Swanson 185 LG (62) - Travis Burkholder 225
LB (20) - Michael Gonzales 155 C (71) - Daniel Medina 160
CB (21) - Jesus Pedroza 165 RG (55) - Adrian Barreno 195
SS (12) - Matt Walsh 150 RT (66) - Victor Reyes 165
FS (33) - Adrian Rios 165 TE ( 5) - Alex Orosco 165
CB (31) - Adrian Carrillo 140 SE ( 6) - Simon Castillo 155
K (30) - Johnny Rodriguez 160 P (32) - Eddie Vela 155
P ( 9) - Kevin Kenyon 160 K ( 5) - Alex Orosco 165
Pecos hosting Monahans in first home meet
Pecos Eagles' swimming coach Terri Morse plans to make a few
changes, both out of design and possibly out of necessity this evening,
when the Eagles host the Monahans Loboes in their first home swim meet
of the 2003-04 season.
The Eagles and Loboes will swim starting at 6 p.m. at the Pecos High
School pool. It's the first of three home meets this season for Pecos,
all between now and the middle of November.
The meet is also the third so far this season for the Eagles. Both
the boys and girls teams took second place in Odessa earlier this
month, and both swept Fort Stockton in a dual meet last Thursday.
Morse switched up some of her swimmers last week from what they had
been entered in at the Odessa Invitational. For tonight, she said,
"Some are swimming in their regular events and some aren't. It's hard
to say right now, because I've got some who may be sick, so I may have
to change my relays again.
"I have a couple of girls who are kind of sick right now, and my
boys I may switch around some. I really don't know what some of the
other teams have. I'll have to wait and see Andrews and Big Spring, so
for now, I'm not sure what I'm going to do," she said.
Pecos swept all of the races against Fort Stockton last Thursday,
and earned five first place finishes out of 12 races on the boys' side
in their season opener In Odessa.
Pecos will go to Big Spring next weekend for the Big Spring
Invitational, then host Fort Stockton and hold their own invitational
meet over the next two weeks. They'll also have a dual meet against
Midland High and Midland Lee during that time.
Diving today will start before swimming, at about 4:30 p.m., though
Morse said, "Monahans doesn't have any divers, so this is going to be
more of a practice meet. I've got one that's just going to practice and
two that are going to dive."
Junior high teams host Loboes,
JV squad playing in Monahans
Pecos' junior high football teams will be playing their second and
third games of the season against the Monahans Loboes today, while the
Eagles will have a combined freshman and junior varsity team in
Monahans to take on the Loboes this evening, at 7 p.m.
The seventh grade purple and gold teams will host Monahans, the
seventh graders at the Crockett Middle School field and the eighth
graders at Eagle Stadium, both at 4 and 5:30 p.m.
The JV and freshman combined team lost their last game, 38-0 at
Kermit, which left the JV with a 2-5 season record. The junior high
teams played only purple squad games two weeks ago against the
Yellowjackets, with the seventh graders winning 36-20 to go to 5-0 on
the season, while the eighth graders are 1-3-1 after ended up in a
16-16 tie with Kermit.
The seventh grade purple team beat Monahans in September, 6-0, while
the eighth grade team lost on the Loboes' home field, 30-0. The gold
teams have played Monahans twice already, splitting those games with
the Loboes.
Aside from the junior high and high school games at Eagle Stadium
today and Friday, Pecos' Pee Wee football teams will be hosting teams
from Kermit, Andrews and Seminole on Saturday at the high school field.
The Chiefs and Vikings will take on Kermit at 10 and 11 a.m., the
Dolphins and Packers will face Andrews at 12:30 and 1:30 p.m., and the
Colts and Redskins will face Seminole at 3 and 4 p.m.
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
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Copyright 2003 by Pecos Enterprise
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