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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Thursday, September 18, 2003
Eagles looking to delay Cubs' turnaround plans
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
The Brownfield Cubs turned their season around last year against the Pecos
Eagles, after an 0-3 start, while sending Pecos into a tailspin for the
rest of the season.
Friday night in Brownfield, the 0-3 Cubs will again try to turn their
season around against the Eagles, while Pecos will be trying to find their
missing running game and at the same time surpass their two-victory total
for all of 2002.
The teams meet at 7:30 p.m., with the 2-1 Eagles coming in off a 19-12
road victory last Friday over Lamesa. Brownfield, meanwhile, fell to 0-3,
but their loss may have been more impressive than Pecos' win, as they went
into Crane and just missed pulling off an upset on the state-ranked Cranes,
losing by a 13-12 final score.
Last season in Pecos, the Cubs took advantage of a blown trick play by
the Eagles on their very first snap, recovering a fumble and scoring 23
seconds into the game. They then added another TD early in the third period
for a 13-6 victory over Pecos. That started a string of six wins in their
final seven regular season games for Brownfield, which ended up claiming
the District 2-3A title, their first in 10 years.
It also earned coach Mark Howard a job with Frisco, north of Dallas, and
11-year assistant Kevin Pittman has taken over as the Cubs' head coach this
season. His first season has started out the same as Howard's final one
in Brownfield, but outside of their 35-14 home loss to Pecos' district rival,
Kermit, two weeks ago, Pittman said the Cubs haven't played that badly.
"We started off really well against Shallowwater, but then we got lightning-ed
out in the third quarter," he said. "Against Crane, we just didn't get the
ball in the end zone in the second half, and Crane did."
Brownfield grabbed a 12-0 lead before Crane scored in the closing minutes
of the first half, and then added the winning TD on the first play of the
fourth quarter.
"They don't look like an 0-3 team," said Eagles' head coach Patrick Willis.
"They play solid and come right at you."
"They run the ball real well, and I think they'll do some things that
will give us problems. They've also got a real good threat out there at
the end at receiver (Trent Sellers). He's got real good speed."
"We finally got some things untracked, and we kind of took advantage
of some of the things Crane permitted us to do," said Pittman. "We also played
with a lot of enthusiasm. When you play the No. 5 or 6 ranked team in 2A
you're playing with not a lot to lose."
Tailback Andrew Cruz scored both touchdowns against Crane, and ran for
100 yards on only 11 carries in last year's victory in Pecos. He's the only
returning starter in the offensive backfield for the Cubs, who also lost
quarterback Zach Howard to Frisco when his father took the head coaching
job there. Andrew Sides is his replacement, while Mason Becker is Brownfield's
new fullback.
"(Sides) was a backup last year as a sophomore, but got very little playing
time," Pittman said. "Mason Becker, our fullback, started at tight end last
year."
Becker also was an all-district selection at linebacker, while Sellers
was an all-district pick on offense, though he's been hampered by a fractured
wrist so far this season.
"He's had it on since the first week and has been playing with it," Pittman
said. "He'll get it off next week, but the doctor said he wanted it kept
on for one week longer."
Pittman said the Cubs' main weak spot has been on the offensive line,
where only center Keith Jackson returns from last year. "We have some really,
really young kids. It may look like we have a lot of seniors, but most of
them were on our JV team a year ago," he said
Still, the Cubs ran for 218 yards against Crane last week, and gained
almost 200 on the ground in their loss to Kermit. Pecos, meanwhile, has
managed minus-12 yards rushing in their last two games, but were able to
generate just enough of a ground game against Lamesa to score a pair of
rushing touchdowns, by Booker Fobbs and Rashad Terry, in the first and fourth
quarters
Saul Pina also had a TD pass to Oscar Parada in the final period, as the
Eagles scored all three times they were inside the Tornadoes' 20-yard-line,
after failing on three efforts inside the 5-yard-line the previous week,
in their 13-8 loss to Alpine.
"We just went back to working on the basics this week," said Willis. "We'll
do a couple of different things, but we do that every week. The thing is
the kids have been unsure at times about what they're supposed to do and
are not blocking, and they've got to block."
Willis said the problems since the opening week win over Midland Christian
have been varied. "Sometimes we've missed our assignment and blocked the
wrong way, and sometimes we're not staying with our blocks, and a couple
of times we've just gotten whipped up front," he said.
Defensively, Becker and Josh Hope are back at linebacker, and Sellers
returns in the secondary, but as was the case with the offensive line, Pittman
said they have only one starter back, in defensive end Coby Jenkins.
"They run a 50 defense and are pretty aggressive," Willis said. "Both
their defensive tackles bring it pretty hard and they've got some good sound
linebackers. I think they'll put everybody up there to come and get us."
"Defensively we played pretty good, but we had Crane 3rd-and-12 right
before the half and we let them break one on us to the 2-yard-line. That's
how they scored on us," Pittman said. "We're working to get better for district.
We knew we were going to take our lumps early, because we've got a tough
pre-district schedule, but you've got to play tough teams to get better."
Pecos' defense held Lamesa to 151 yards and has not allowed any of their
opponents more than 164 yards in a game so far in 2003. Willis said the
Eagles would probably be without linebacker and wingback Bino Barreno for
the second week in a row. Eddie Vela started in his place last Friday at
Lamesa.
STARTING LINEUPS
Pecos Brownfield
Offense Defense
QB (10) - Saul Pina 165 DE (80) - Coby Jenkins
200
RB (22) - Rashad Terry 160 DT (65) - Daniel Garcia
200
SE ( 9) - John Parent 175 NG (66) - Rocky Garcia
210
WB ( 2) - Oscar Parada 180 DT (50) - Charles Salas
220
LT (56) - Chad Evans 210 DE (62) - J.J. Jobe
175
LG (62) - Travis Burkholder 225 LB (34) - Ryan Telles
170
C (71) - Daniel Medina 160 LB (33) - Mason Becker
185
RG (55) - Adrian Barreno 195 LB (42) - Josh Hope
185
RT (66) - Victor Reyes 165 CB ( 2) - Andrew Cruz
145
TE ( 5) - Alex Orosco 165 FS (10) - Trent Sellers
165
SE ( 6) - Simon Castillo 155 CB (12) - Andrew Sides
175
Defense Offense
DE (56) - Chad Evans 210 QB (12) - Andrew Sides
175
DT (54) - Jacob Marquez 180 FB (33) - Mason Becker
185
DT (66) - Victor Reyes 165 TB ( 2) - Andrew Cruz
145
DE (47) - Booker Fobbs 210 SE (11) - Raymond Flores
170
LB ( 5) - Alex Orosco 165 LT (70) - Jonathan Norris
205
LB (33) - Joe Marruffo 170 LG (65) - Daniel Garcia
200
LB (32) - Eddie Vela 155 C (60) - Keith Jackson
205
CB (30) - Jose Garcia 150 RG (74) - Jay Guerra'
220
R ( 9) - John Parent 175 RT (50) - Charlies Salas
220
S ( 2) - Oscar Parada 180 TE (80) - Coby Jenkins
200
CB ( 6) - Simon Castillo 155 WR (40) - Rudy Alvarado
160
JV, freshmen host Brownfield,
junior high squads face Loboes
The Pecos Eagles' junior high football players will be going to Monahans
for the second week in a row, while Pecos' junior varsity and freshman players
will be at home for the second straight week, as the seventh and eighth
graders face the Loboes while the ninth grade and JV squads play host to
Brownfield.
The junior high purple teams will be in Monahans for games at 5:30 p.m.
at the Loboes' high school and junior high fields, while the freshman will
play at 5:30 and the varsity at 7 p.m. against the Cubs at Eagle Stadium.
The freshmen won their season opener last week, scoring four touchdowns
in a span of just under eight minutes to defeat Lamesa, 46-16. The Eagles
rallied from 8-0 and 16-8 deficits, then scored twice just before halftime
and two more times in the third period, before the game was called due to
lightning.
Luis Ortega had three touchdowns rushing and Larry Johnson two for the
freshman, one on an interception and the other on a pass from Isaiah Rayos.
The other score was also on an interception return, by Rayos.
The JV got in their entire game after the lightning ended and improved
their record to 2-1 on the season with a 14-12 win over the Tornadoes. Luis
Nunez had a touchdown run and returned a Lamesa conversion attempt for two
points, while Miguel Estrada passed to Traikole McNary for the other score.
The purple teams were idle last week, while the gold teams split with
Monahans' junior high squads. The seventh graders won by a 20-8 score, and
the eighth graders fell to the Loboes, 12-0. In their season openers two
weeks ago, both purple teams scored home victories over Alpine, the seventh
graders by a 32-6 margin and the gold team by a 20-6 final score.
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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