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Sports

Friday, October 30, 1998

Netters matched with WF Rider in opener


PECOS, Oct. 30 -- By winning the District 2-4A tennis title,
the Pecos Eagles were supposed to face a second place team
in the first round of the Region I-4A tennis tournament.
They just didn't know it would also be the tournament's
second-ranked team.

Pecos took the court this morning against Wichita Falls
Rider, which despite finishing second in their district to
Wichita Falls High, are ranked as the No. 2 team in the
entire 16 team tournament, which runs through Saturday at
several sites around Wichita Falls.

"Our kids are really gung-ho and have got a positive
attitude going out there," said coach Bernadette Ornelas.
"It doesn't matter whether we're playing the No. 2 team or
the worst team. The kids know there are not too many teams
that have gotten this far."

District runner-up Clint earned the honor of playing No. 1
Wichita Falls and both the Eagles and Lions will get to play
their first round matches in the nicest setting of the
tournament, the Wichita Falls Country Club.

Ornelas said if Pecos pulls a first round upset and wins,
they'll face either Andrews or El Paso Burges in the
quarterfinals, while if they lose, they'll still have a
consolation round quarterfinals match Friday afternoon
against either Cleburne or Weatherford.

"Either way, the kids know that when they're out there,
they're going to have to step up. They're playing tougher
teams, and I believe they will raise their level of play."

Andrews ended up second in the Eagles' former district,
while their replacement, Snyder, took the District 5-4A
title and is facing Dumas in the first round. Ornelas said
neither the Mustangs nor the Tigers are seeded, with Pampa
earning the tournament's No. 3 seed while Burleson is seeded
fourth.

Eagles to `Demonize' Loboes


PECOS, Oct. 30 -- The Loboes will be Demons for the Pecos
Eagles volleyball team on Saturday, and that doesn't matter
how good or bad the Eagles' practice game foes play.

Pecos will go to Monahans for a 7 p.m. tune-up game against
the Loboes, after drawing a bye in the first round of the
Class 4A playoffs. Pecos will begin the playoffs with an
area round matchup next Tuesday, and Eagles' coach Becky
Granado is expecting to face the Dumas Demons that night in
Lubbock.

I talked to the Dumas coach (Jack Wilson) and we decided if
we play it would be Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Lubbock Estacado
High School," Granado said. Dumas first has to get by the
Frenship Tigers on Saturday afternoon in Plainview, but with
a 25-9 season mark compared to Frenship's 11-11 record, the
Demons seem to be the Eagles' likely opponents. Dumas lost a
first place playoff on Monday to two-time defending state
champ Hereford, 16-14, 15-10.

Monahans is also preparing to begin the Class 3A playoffs,
and should be a better opponent for Pecos than they were in
mid-September, when the Loboes were without their 6-foot
junior hitter Cassidy Avery and lost to the Eagles, 15-9,
15-12.

"I talked to the coach at Hereford (Brenda Kitten) and she
told me what they did to beat them, and we're going to
incorporate that into the kind of offense and defense we
need," Granado said, and Saturday's match will be a chance
to test those changes out.

"We're just going to pretend they're Dumas," she said, and
the presence of Avery and the Loboes' other big hitter,
6-foot-1 Vanessa Collins, should help heighten that illusion.

"She (Kitten) said they've got some big hitters, so we're
going to have to work on our defense," Granado said, while
on offense, the Eagles will look to improve on some of the
`soft tap' spikes that they were able to get by with in some
of their regular season games.

"It amazes me. At practice they get up there and hit the
ball hard, then they don't do it in the game," the Eagles'
coach said. "We're working on some very shallow hitting and
cross-court hitting. They were doing that on Tuesday,
whether they do it on Saturday, we'll just have to see."

Pecos' district rivals, meanwhile, were eliminated from the
playoffs quickly in their bi-district matches on Thursday.
Runner-up Fabens was swept by El Paso Bowie, 15-3, 15-8,
while third place San Elizario dropped a 15-3, 15-5 match to
El Paso High. Bowie defeated the Eagles in Pecos earlier
this season, while El Paso High eliminated the Eagles from
the Class 4A playoffs last season.

Pecos faces tough run in cross country


PECOS, Oct. 30 -- The overall level of football, volleyball
and tennis may be a little lower in the Pecos Eagles new
District 2-4A than it was with their former district rivals.
But don't try telling that to cross country coach Rudy
Jurado.

His team will be in Ysleta Saturday morning for the district
cross country meet, and while the Eagles would have had a
good chance to advance to regionals running against Andrews,
Lake View, Big Spring and the rest, Jurado said it's going
to be tough getting back there against Clint, Fabens and
Canutillo.

"Clint is the defending (Class 3A boys) state champs, and I
think Fabens also went to state last year," Jurado said.
Those three teams, plus defending Class 4A champ El Paso
High, blitzed the rest of the Class 4A field, including
Pecos and their old district foes, in Lubbock last month.

While catching the Lions and Wildcats will be tough, the
Eagles' coach is hoping Pecos can beat out Canutillo for
third place, though they will be without a couple of runners
on Saturday. Jurado said Roy Marta, Oscar Medrano, Jesse
Salazar, Alex Avila and Nolan Blount will make the trip to
El Paso today, and they'll pick up Orlando Matta after the
Eagles finish their football game in Canutillo tonight.

On the girls' side, the Eagles will have just one runner
entered, senior Liz Parent. Jurado said the other girls'
runner, sophomore Jenny Alvarez is injured. "She hurt her
hip a couple of weeks ago and is still having problems," he
said.

The race opens at 11 a.m. CST with the boys' varsity finals,
followed by the girls varsity race. The Eagles will not
field a team for either of the junior varsity divisions.

Comeback tries at Eagle Stadium spiked


By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Oct. 30 -- While the Pecos Eagles varsity football
team is headed west tonight to seek a district title against
one of their new rivals, the sub-varsity squads faced one of
their old district foes Thursday, in junior high, freshman
and junior varsity games against Fort Stockton.

Playing in Pecos, the JV edged Fort Stockton, 28-20, while
the seventh grade `A' and `B' teams dropped 14-6 and 32-0
games to the Panthers. In Fort Stockton, the freshmen Eagles
lost by a 32-14 score, while the eighth grade split their
`A' and `B' games, losing by a 20-0 score after winning the
first game, 14-6.

The JV and 7th grade `A' games ended in the exact same
fashion, with the losing team trying to drive for a score,
but unable to spike the ball and stop the clock in time for
one last play.

In the seventh grade game, it was Pecos that ran out of
time, 25 yards away from the end zone. Fort Stockton had
taken a 12-0 lead before the Eagles got a defensive
touchdown when Alex Orosco recovered a Panther fumble in the
end zone. But Pecos' next drive ended with an interception
at the Panthers' 10, and the clock expired before the Eagles
could get one last shot.

The finish in the JV game was even wilder, with three TDs in
the last 3½ minutes and the game ending with the Panthers on
Pecos' 7-yard-line. The Eagles took an early 7-0 lead when
Mason Abila returned an interception 96 yards for a
touchdown, but after Frankie Alvarez' extra point the
Panthers came back and scored on a five-yard run then added
a two-point conversion to go up 8-7.

The Panthers took a 14-7 lead in the second quarter off a
45-yard TD run, before the Eagles cut it to 14-13 on an
18-yard run by quarterback Richard Rodriguez. The extra
point failed and the score stayed that way until 3:21 to
play when Pecos turned a Fort Stockton fumble into a 72-yard
scoring drive, capped by Abila's five yard run.

Omar Luna's two point run made it 21-14, but Fort Stockton
then ran the ensuing kickoff back 78 yards for a score, only
to see the go-ahead two-point pass dropped in the end zone.
The Panthers would then stop Pecos and get the ball back,
but immediately fumble it away, leading to Alvarez' 1-yard
TD run and kick with a minute to play. The Eagles then saw
the Panthers nearly break two short passes for scores,
stopping the last one at the Pecos 13, before the clock ran
out to end the game. The win lifted the JV's record to 3-4-1
on the season.

Pecos' freshmen did get five touchdowns on the night, but
three of those were in the JV game. The ninth graders in
Fort Stockton got their two scores off a 35-yard touchdown
pass from Paul Juarez to Ricky Plummer and a 12-yard run by
Chris Lara, which coach Mike Sadler said was his first TD of
the season. The ninth graders are now 2-6 on the season.

Eighth grade coach Rudy Jurado said his `A' team fell to 3-3
after Fort Stockton scored once in each of the final three
quarters, while the `B' team got their first win when an
interference call set up Chris Orona's second touchdown of
the game, from a yard out with 30 seconds to play. Orona had
tied the game in the third quarter after Fort Stockton
grabbed a 6-0 halftime lead.

The seventh grade `B' team lost their game at home to Fort
Stockton, by a 34-0 final score. The seventh graders close
out their 1998 season next week at home against Crane, while
the eighth grade team goes to Crane for their final game.

Tonight at 7:30 p.m., the Eagles' varsity will try for their
first district title in 23 years when they travel to
Canutillo to face their Eagle counterparts, who need a win
to move closer to their first playoff berth in 18 years. A
win for Pecos would also assure the Eagles of their first
winning season since 1986, when they finished with a 7-3
mark. Pecos is 3-0 in district, while Canutillo is 2-1, and
with a 4-4 overall record, will be trying to get over the
.500 mark for the first time this season after an 0-3 start.

Also looking to clinch a playoff berth tonight is Clint,
which plays at San Elizario, while the district's two other
teams, Fabens and Mountain View, need victories to keep
their playoff hopes alive.

Fabens (1-2 district, 6-2 season) at Mountain View (1-2,
5-3): The Wildcats and Lobos both need victories to salvage
seasons that began with 5-0 and 4-1 pre-district records.
Fabens barely held off a San Elizario comeback attempt last
week to win, 14-12, while Mountain View fell behind early
for the second week in a row, then saw their comeback fall
short in a 21-14 loss to Canutillo.

Adolfo Villa had a big passing night, mostly in the second
half, after the Loboes fell behind, 21-0. Mountain View has
failed to reach the 100-yard mark in rushing each of the
past two games while giving up lots of yards on the ground
to Pecos and Canutillo.

Fabens did cut down on their defensive problems, after
surrendering 28, 31 and 49 points in their previous three
games, and were able to contain San Elizario quarterback
Mike Perez much of the night. A Wildcats' victory would keep
Canutillo from clinching a playoff berth, even if they win
over Pecos tonight.

Clint (2-1, 4-4) at San Elizario (0-3, 2-6): Although
they're at the opposite ends of the 2-4A standings, San
Elizario is probably the closest team in offensive
philosophy to Pecos in the district -- that is, they run
before they even think of passing. That could be interesting
tonight against the Lions, who allowed 418 yards to the
Eagles a week ago.

In all three of their district games, San Elizario has
fallen behind early, then fought back before falling short
in the final period. Clint, meanwhile, will try to bounce
back from last week's loss, in which they were held 170
yards below their season average and quarterback D.J. Check
managed just 123 yards -- good for Pecos or San Elizario,
but 180 less than he had been averaging. The status of
leading receiver Jeremy Arnold, who took a hard shot from
Mark Abila late in the game, will also be a factor.

Palmer returns after cancer treatments


LOS ANGELES, Oct. 30 (AP) -- An enthusiastic Arnold Palmer
is ready to return to the Senior PGA Tour after taking time
off to undergo radiation treatments for prostate cancer.

``It's great to be back and it's great to be feeling good,''
Palmer said Thursday. ``It will be about four or five weeks
until I'm fully back, although I feel fine.

``I'm looking forward to the tournament.''

The 69-year-old Palmer, who hasn't played a tournament since
early August, recently completed seven weeks of radiation
therapy as a follow-up to his cancer surgery in January
1997.

Palmer is the second-oldest player among the 78 golfers
entered today in the $1.1 million Pacific Bell Senior
Classic at Wilshire Country Club. Charlie Sifford is 76.

``I enjoy what I do,'' Palmer said. ``I suppose that's the
major thing that keeps me going. I don't want to stop it. I
just want to continue on and on.

``I'm always happy to be back in Los Angeles. I enjoy
playing here, and have for many years. The fans here have
been great to me over the years.''

Palmer, who practiced while receiving his cancer treatments,
said it was difficult to say how much they took out of him.

``I notice that when I play now and I've been walking 18
holes that towards the end of the round, I get a little bit
tired,'' he said. ``When I'm aware of it and know it is
coming, I can usually do something about it to overcome it
by slowing down a little bit.''

It was learned last week that Palmer's wife, Winnie, has
ovarian cancer. She had her first treatment Monday at
Orlando, Fla.

``She's fine,'' Palmer said. ``She's doing very well and we
expect a full recovery from her.''

Palmer won 60 tournaments on the PGA Tour, seven of them
major championships, and has 10 Senior PGA Tour victories.

Also entered in this tournament are defending champion Gil
Morgan, Larry Nelson, Hugh Baiocchi, Dana Quigley, Jim
Colbert, Bruce Summerhays, Isao Aoki and Dave Stockton.

The winner of the 54-hole event that finishes Sunday earns
$165,000.



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Pecos Enterprise
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324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net

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