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Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Tuesday, February 7, 2006
Tornadoes do second quarter damage to Eagles
The second quarter results weren’t good for either the Pecos Eagle boys or girls basketball teams on Friday night in Lamesa, as both teams saw Lamesa use big second quarters to get their second victories of the season over Pecos.
The Eagle girls were outscored 17-9 in the second period, turning a four-point Lamesa lead into a 12-point deficit, as the Golden Tornadoes went on to score a 50-34 win over Pecos. The Eagle boys were down by just two points late in the first period, but saw Lamesa’s Brady Free follow up his 26-point effort last month against Pecos with a 31-point night, as the Tors outscored the Eagles 20-9 in the second period and went on to a 78-51 win.
Coach Art Wellborn said Free’s shooting and the Eagles’ own mistakes set the stage for Friday’s loss. “I’ll bet we had 12 traveling calls against us,” he said. “We just turned the ball over way too many times, and No. 12 (Free) just lit us up. We couldn’t man (defense) him, and we couldn’t zone him.”
Free benefited in the first meeting from Lamesa’s 54-10 shooting advantage from the foul line. This time, Lamesa had only a seven shot advantage from the line, but Free still took advantage, going 10-for-10 as part of a 22-for-27 night for the Tors. Meanwhile the Eagles had more problems with their shooting, both from the field and from the foul line, where they hit just 12 of their 20 shots. Jeremiah Jurado did go 7-for-8 from the line, while Luis Licon led Pecos with 20 points.
“We had more shots go in and out than we’ve had all year long,” Wellborn said. “We also missed five free throws early that should have put us ahead. But then that kid (Free) went into a zone.”
The Eagles also were shorthanded in the backcourt by early in the third period. “Josh (Anchondo) pushed a kid in the third quarter, and so I had to sit him down for the rest of the game, since that’s my rule,” Wellborn said. “So we had to play without him, and Lupito (Bustamantes) also didn’t have a very good night.”
The loss leaves the Eagles with a 1-8 record in district, and 3-19 on the season going into Tuesday’s 7:30 p.m. game against Seminole, currently in second place in the 3-3A standings.
Tuesday’s game will be the final one of the season for Pecos’ girls, who wrapped up their road schedule with their loss to the Tors. Like the boys, the Eagle girls had problems on offense, scoring just four in the first period. But they were able to hold Lamesa to only eight during the span.
Part of that was due to cold shooting on the Tors’ part, but they heated up in the second period and led 25-13 at halftime, and would widen their margin to as many as 19 points in the second half. Lamesa’s press also bothered the Eagles at times, but also gave Pecos a lot of chances from the foul line, where they went 15-for-26 on the night.
With junior post Chantell Mazone missing the game for a team rule violation, Lamesa post Trisha Southhall was able to get inside for a game-high 15 points. Adriana Armendariz led the Eagles with 14 points and Amalie Herrera finished with 10.
The loss dropped Pecos to 2-9 in district and 5-18 on the season going into Tuesday’s game against Seminole, which already has clinched the 3-3A title and will try for their second straight undefeated season in district with a victory over the Eagles.
Martinez wins medalist honor at Angelo golf
Pecos Eagles senior Shelly Martinez started off the 2006 spring golf season by capturing medalists honors in the Blue Division of the San Angelo Girls Golf Classic, while the Eagles as a team placed fourth in the 20-team division.
Martinez shot a 78 at Bentwood Country Club on Friday and followed that up with a 73 at Riverside Golf Course on Saturday for a 151 score, four strokes ahead of Snyder’s Chandra Alexander. Her teammate, Ashley Luecke was third with a 157 score, and the Tigers ran away with the team title, shooting a 638 to finish 30 strokes up on second place Andrews, and 85 shots ahead of Pecos.
The Eagles had a 378 score on Friday, and cut that to a 345 on Saturday for a 723 total. Snyder won with a 326-312 score for both days, while Andrews had a 352-316-668 total. Pecos’ Saturday total was third best on the day, but they placed fourth overall, behind Aledo, which shot a 353-351-704.
Coach Tina Doan said the course was tougher and the conditions were poorer on Friday at Bentwood than for Saturday’s round at Riverside. “The greens were tough and the winds were blowing about 20-30 mph,” she said. “There wasn’t a flat spot anywhere and the putts were always breaking.
“The second day, they came back to a course that was closer to ours and did a lot better,” she said. “We placed fourth, and only one team in 3A finished ahead of us, Snyder. The other two, Andrews and Aledo, are both 4As.”
Individually for the Eagles after Martinez, Carolina Briones shot a 98-92-190; Eleanor Mason had a 101-90-191; Stephanie Galindo shot a 106-90-196, and Rica Pino shot a 101-102-203.
“Shelly had an outstanding round on Saturday, and I’m proud of the way all the girls did,” said Doan. “They worked hard, and we still have some things to do, but I thought overall t hey did a great job.”
Monahans, which has beaten out Pecos the last two seasons for the District 3-3A title, was the only other 3-3A school to have a full team at San Angelo, and shot a 406 on the opening day, but cut that on Saturday to a 349, for a 755 final score. The Loboes’ Paige Shaw had the third best round of the day with a 75 on Saturday, after shooting a 110 at Bentwood on Friday.
“It was rough for everyone. Even the older kids had trouble,” Doan said.
Pecos’ boys had been scheduled to open their season this past weekend in Monahans, but had to drop out due to grades and other activities. Coach Kim Anderson said the Eagles would start their season this coming Friday and Saturday at the Big Spring Invitational, while the girls, who were scheduled to play in Big Spring, will skip that tournament, and play later this year in a tournament at Lamesa, which will also be the site of one of the three rounds of the District 3-3A girls tournament.
Pecos sets tentative grid schedule
The Pecos Eagles will open and close play in their new football district next fall against the district’s two smallest schools, while facing two late season trips to the El Paso area, under the schedule worked out for District 1-3A in Van Horn on Friday.
Interim athletic director Jerry Millsaps said the first meeting for the new district was held to set up the 2006-07 varsity football schedules, which have Pecos, Monahans and Fort Stockton joining a new district that includes Fabens, Clint, Anthony and Tornillo. Meanwhile, Millsaps and Kim Rogers, media director for the University Interscholastic League, said the final district alignments for sports besides football and basketball won’t be released until March.
Millsaps worked out a tentative pre-district schedule on Thursday, when the bi-annual UIL realignment was announced. Pecos will have five home and five road games, though one of those will be a neutral site contest against Alpine to open the 2006 season, on Sept. 1 at Ratliff Stadium.
That will be followed by the Eagles’ first home game, on Sept. 8 against the Andrews Mustangs, the latest school to drop from Class 4A to 3A in the Permian Basin. Pecos then hosts Kermit and Denver City, two teams that were also on the Eagles’ pre-district schedule the past two seasons.
Andrews was the Eagles’ first scrimmage opponent for the past two years, but come August, Pecos will scrimmage current District 3-3A rival Seminole to open things up, on Aug. 19. They’ll then face another current 3-3A opponent, Greenwood, in their final scrimmage, tentatively set for Aug. 24.
Pecos’ District 1-3A opener will be on Sept. 29 at home against the Anthony Wildcats, the state’s furthest west school district, and the smallest in the district, with just 221 students. Anthony and Tornillo, with 264 students petitioned to play in Class 2A for the next two seasons to cut down on travel costs, while Fabens and Clint, which had petitioned for the past six years to remain in Class 4A to cut down on their travel costs, opted to go to 3A this year with the addition of the two other El Paso area schools.
Fabens is actually the district’s largest school, with 725 students, while Clint has just 475, after losing many of its students to the new Horizon City High School that opened three years ago. Fort Stockton, Pecos and Monahans all have nearly three times the student enrollment as Anthony, which had been hoping only one or two Permian Basin schools would be in the new district.
"The bright spot is that those three will move out (after football), so it did work, just not for football," Tornillo athletic director and head football coach Don Benson told the El Paso Times on Friday.
The Eagles will follow up their game against Anthony by facing defending district champ and Class 3A state semifinalist Monahans in their first 1-3A road game, on Oct. 6. Pecos then gets a open date before hosting Clint on Oct. 20, then make their first trip to the El Paso area on Oct. 27 to play Fabens. Their final home game is Nov. 3 versus Fort Stockton, and then they’ll close out regular season play on Nov. 10 at Tornillo.
The top three teams that qualify for the playoffs will all draw first round byes the weekend of Nov. 17, with no teams playing football as members of District 2-3A. That’s the district Pecos, Monahans and Fort Stockton will be in for basketball, but Rogers said while it’s likely that will also be their district for other team sports and extracurricular events, that won’t be determined for another month.
“They’ll release the other sports alignments in March, after the appeals process is over,” Rogers said on Friday.
Pecos, Monahans and Fort Stockton will be paired with Presidio in basketball for the next two seasons. Were the Eagles, Loboes and Panthers to remain in District 1-3A for other sports, the Blue Devils would automatically qualify for the playoffs and draw a first round bye, even though they would have no other teams to play in district. But Rogers said that’s not going to happen.
“If they play another sport, we wouldn’t have only one team in a district,” she said.
The second and third place in the basketball out of District 2-3A will play bi-district against the four remaining 1-3A schools. District winners and the three playoff teams out of 1-3A in football will advance to area competition against the bi-district winners from either District 3-3A, which includes Andrews, Greenwood, Lamesa and Snyder, or District 4-3A, which is made up of Seminole, Brownfield, Levelland and Lubbock Cooper.
Millsaps said while the varsity schedule is set, the Eagles are still looking for sub-varsity games to fill in most of the dates against the El Paso area schools.
“Only one school out there (Fabens) is willing to play us, and they’re only willing to play at the JV level,” he said. “We’d be looking to try and play that game in Van Horn if we could.
“So we’re going to have to make up the seventh, eighth, ninth and JV schedules with the schools right here in our area,” Millsaps said.
One sub-varsity match-up tentatively set is on Sept. 28 against Crane, the week Pecos opens district play against Anthony. Former head football coach Patrick Willis had Crane scheduled for the varsity that week, but the game had to be dropped when the UIL opted for a seven team District 1-3A with Monahans, instead of with Presidio as expected prior to Thursday’s announcement.
Meanwhile, the number of applicants for the Eagles’ head football coach and athletic director job has increased to around 60, with Feb. 15 the deadline for applications to be accepted by Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD officials. Millsaps said the committee named to evaluate the applicants will meet to go over the list on Feb. 17, and will hold interviews on Feb. 22-23.
References on the top candidates will be checked by the committee on Feb. 26-27, and the group expects to have a recommendation to present to the school board on March 1.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 432-445-5475, FAX 432-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
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Copyright 2003-04 by Pecos Enterprise
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