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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Monday, September 8, 2003
Pecos goes 1-4 in Seminole Tournament play
The Pecos Eagles' volleyball team played better in their final tournament
of the season this past weekend in Seminole than they did at their own tournament
a week earlier, coach Becky Granado said. But the effort didn't show up
on the scoreboard and Granado said her team didn't finish off tournament
play in strong fashion.
The Eagles went 1-4 in their matches at Seminole, losing to the Midland
High Bulldogs and Midland Lee Rebels to open the tournament, then defeating
Amarillo River Road before falling to Andrews and Pampa in their final two
matches.
Pecos lost in two games to the Bulldogs, 25-7, 25-14, then fell in two
to the Rebels before sweeping River Road, 25-23, 25-18. On Saturday, the
Eagles had a chance to beat Andrews before failing at the finish of a 20-25,
25-18, 25-23 loss, and ended up losing to the Harvesters in their final
match, 25-17, 25-20.
"We played a good defensive game against Midland (Lee), but we just couldn't
score enough points," Granado said, while in the loss to Andrews, "We had
them down 23-20 in the last game, and then we broke our serve and just had
a hard time handling their serves for the last four points."
Granado said the Eagles started off all right in their match with Pampa.
"We hustled a lot on defense and picked up a lot of hard-hit balls. Our
hitters were hitting the holes, but towards the end when we needed to be
mentally tough we lost our focus and fell apart.
"It was just like a roller coaster ride. We'd play good in some games,
then we just couldn't get anything going on offense," she said. "We just
need somebody to step it up and play at a higher level. That's what's hurting
us right now. Nobody wants to take charge; they're waiting for somebody
else to do the job."
Monahans was the only other District 4-3A team entered at the tournament,
and ended up losing in the finals to Lubbock Coronado, 25-18, 27-25, 25-19.
"We're running out of time to get things going before district," said
Granado, whose team fell to 6-10 on the season. Pecos has only six more
matches before their District 4-3A opener, three of those against district
teams next week, in Fort Stockton and at home against Kermit and Presidio.
The next matches for the Eagles are Tuesday evening in Van Horn, against
El Paso Americus and Van Horn. Pecos has beaten Van Horn twice this season,
while this will be their first match against Americus.
Cowboys able to wear down Bears, 59-43
The Balmorhea Bears ran short of players on Friday and came up short
on the scoreboard against the Bryson Cowboys, as they fell to 1-1 on the
season with a 59-43 loss in a game played in Highland.
"Basically, they out-muscled us," said Bears' coach Adolfo Garcia. "They
just drove the ball down the field.
"We had only 11 kids out. I had two hurt, and then I lost my starting
quarterback," Garcia said. Keith Baeza suffered a concussion in the third
period, and had to leave the game. "He's going to go to the doctor, and
will probably be out about two weeks."
"He was also our safety, so I didn't have him there, and I already had
those other two starters out, Stoney Iniquez and Levan Barragan. So I only
had three real starters in there," Garcia said.
The Cowboys pulled away in the third period, after the Bears held an
early lead, Garcia said. "In the third quarter they pulled out to about a
17-point lead. We'd cut it back to 10 points after that, but then they would
score again," he said.
No scoring summary was available for the game, but Garcia said Urban
Baeza ran a kickoff back for a touchdown and also caught a touchdown pass
for the Bears. "Defensively, Ismael Rodriguez and Robbie Mendoza did a real
good job," he added.
The Bears will return home for their game this Friday night, against
El Paso Jesus Chapel, which lost to Dell City this past Friday, 59-14.
Balmorhea's junior varsity did come away with a win over Bryson, defeating
the Cowboys by a 47-0 score. The Bears' JV is 2-0 on the season.
Eagles' offense gored by Bucks at goal line
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
The shoe was on the other foot Friday night at Eagle Stadium, and this time,
it was the Pecos Eagles who ended up kicking themselves over a late game
failure on offense.
The Eagles, who stopped Midland Christian inside the 10 yard line late
in the game to win their season opener, had three separate chances with
first downs inside the Alpine Bucks' 5-yard-line in the final six minutes
of Friday night's game, but came up empty each time, as the Bucks dominated
Pecos on the front line and came away with a 13-8 victory.
"It was a terrible, terrible, terrible offensive game, and I take full
responsibility for it," said Eagles' coach Patrick Willis, after his team
was held to minus-13 yards rushing by Alpine in the game, and minus 48-yards
in the second half. Much of that was on bad snaps and bad pitch outs, with
two of those earlier in the final period helping set up a takeaway by Alpine's
Zac Dodson inside the Eagles' 15-yard-line that in turn set up the Bucks'
game-winning score.
The Eagles had only one really good play on offense in the entire second
half, and it set up the frustrating plays inside the Bucks' 10-yard line
that followed.
Saul Pina hit John Parent on a 55-yard pass that set Pecos up with a 1st-and-goal
at the five, but Booker Fobbs was stopped at the line for no gain on first
down, and after Rashad Terry gained two yards, Pina had to throw away a
pass under pressure on third down, and his dump-off pass on fourth down
to Oscar Parada was stopped by Jonathan Wood of the Bucks at the 2-yard
line, giving Alpine the ball...
...but only for two plays. Dodson gained three yards on first down, but
on second down quarterback Mario Estrada fumbled the snap, which Victor
Reyes recovered just outside the two-yard line. This time, Fobbs was again
stopped at the line for no gain, and then lost three yards on second down.
Pina's third down pass to Parent was deflected, and he was forced to scramble
on a fourth down attempt, getting back to the 2-yard-line.
Amazingly, the Eagles would get the ball back again one play later, when
Estrada fumbled the exchange for a second time, and Joe Marruffo recovered
it, again at the 2-yard-line. This time, Pecos went outside to Terry, who
raced around the right side and into the end zone, only to see three flags
fly for holding as he crossed the goal line.
That pushed Pecos back to the 12, and they lost three more yards on another
run attempt by Terry, who was stopped for no gain on third down and lost
the ball on a fumble behind the line on fourth down, with Daniel Stokes
recovering for the Bucks with two minutes to play. Estrada, who despite
the fumbles was the key player on offense Friday for the Bucks, then hit
Ryan McWilliams on a sideline route for eight yards on 3rd-and-7 from the
Eagles' 23, and the Bucks were able to run out the clock after that.
"They said our receiver was grabbing their guy," Willis said of the penalty
that negated the touchdown, while going on to say, "I'm going to have to
look at the video, but somebody's not digging in and blocking. Even if you
just get low and cut your man down you can have Booker fall in from that
close."
Pecos' only score of the night was helped by a trick play, a 16-yard
option pass late in the first period from Bino Barreno to Parent that set
the Eagles up with a 1st-and-goal at the 4. They immediately set themselves
back five yards with a motion penalty, but on the next play Pina hit Barreno
coming out of the backfield, and he was able to race into the end zone on
the same play the two used to score Pecos' first TD a week earlier against
Midland Christian.
The Eagles also used the same shovel pass from Parent to Marruffo to
score a two-point conversion to take the lead, after Alpine converted a
fumble off a sack of Pina earlier in the period into their first touchdown.
Steven Rodriguez made the recovery at the Pecos 48 after he and linebacker
Brice Collier sandwiched Pina and forced the fumble. Estrada went around
left end for 29 yards on the next play, and after Dodson broke three tackles
on a 15-yard run Estrada scored from a yard out with 5:16 left in the period.
Pecos had one other good scoring chance, early in the second period.
But on a 3rd-and-1 play Pina was hit and fumbled after running for the first
down, with Jason Loeffler recovering at the Bucks' 23-yard-line. Meanwhile,
before Alpine finally regained the lead with 9:42 left in the game, they
were the team frustrated by missed scoring chances in the second half on
three drives that started inside Eagle territory thanks to Pecos' second
half offensive woes.
Wood was stopped short of a first down at the Pecos 32 on a 4th-and-3
run on the Bucks' first possession of the half, and on the second, after
Estrada hit McWilliams on a 33-yard pass to the Pecos 16, a quarterback
sneak got the Bucks to the 10, but Estrada was then sacked by Reyes and
Alex Orosco back to the 18 on the next two downs, and his fourth down pass
to Jason Miller went incomplete.
Estrada would return an Eddie Vela punt to the Pecos 23 on the next series,
and this time the Bucks stopped themselves with three penalties, and the
series ended with Eric Fuentez sacking Estrada back to the 40. But on the
next play the Eagles got crossed up on offense, as Pina pitched the ball
back to no one, and had to race to recover it at the 28. The next play was
even worse, as the deep snap sailed past him back to the 13-yard-line, and
the play after that ended with Terry being stripped of the ball, setting
up Alpine's winning TD.
"The defense stayed in there well, as many times as we put their backs
against the wall," Willis said. While the Eagles managed just 110 yards
on offense after gaining over 320 the week before, the Bucks ended up with
164 yards, after going for over 420 in their season-opening win over Sonora.
"I felt we weren't ready to play after the way we practiced on Wednesday.
Thursday the kids practices well again, and I thought they might be ready,
but obviously they weren't, and I blame myself for that," Willis said.
The loss put Pecos at 1-1 going into their 2003 road opener this coming
Friday against Lamesa. The Tors ran all over the Eagles in Pecos a year
ago, but come into the game with an 0-2 mark after a 30-0 loss to Lubbock
Cooper this past Friday.
Greenwood, the only other team in District 4-3A besides Pecos to win
their season opener improved to 2-0 by routing Shallowwater, 42-20. Kermit
and Fort Stockton got their first wins, Kermit 35-12 at Brownfield and Fort
Stockton 25-16 at home over El Paso Burges, while Monahans fell to 0-2 with
a 41-16 loss at Seminole.
At Pecos
Alpine 7 0 0 6 - 13
Pecos 8 0 0 0 - 8
First Quarter
Alp. - Estrada 1 run (Lujan kick), 6:44.
Pec. - B. Barreno 9 pass from Pina (Marruffo run), 10:19
Fourth Quarter
MC - Estrada 4 run (run failed), 2:18
Alp Pec.
First Downs 8 8
Rushes-Yds. 44-123 26-(-13)
Passing Yds. 41 123
Passes 2-9-1 12-27-0
Punts-Avg. 3-28 5-40.6
Fumbles-Lost 2-2 7-4
Penalties-Yds. 9-55 8-75
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING - Alpine, Estrada 28-60, Dodson 10-41, Wood 5-21, Rodriguez 1-4.
Pecos, Terry 8-7, Pina 11-(-9), Fobbs 7-(-11).
PASSING - Alpine, Estrada 2-9-1-41. Pecos, Pina 11-26-0-107, B. Barreno
1-1-0-16.
RECEIVING - Alpine, McWilliams 2-41. Pecos, Parent 4-64, Parada 4-30,
Muela 2-18, B. Barreno 1-9, Vela 1-3.
MISSED FIELD GOALS - None.
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 2003 by Pecos Enterprise
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