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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Monday, September 29, 2003
Blue Devils easier for Pecos to handle in Presidio
The second time around was a lot easier for the Pecos Eagles'
volleyball team than their first match-up against the Presidio Blue
Devils had been. Despite a 160-mile drive to Presidio the Eagles came
away with a sweep of their match Saturday evening against the Blue
Devils.
The Eagles, who went five games and nearly 2 1/2 hours with Presidio
in Pecos on Sept. 13, came back seven days later and downed the Blue
Devils, 25-15, 25-15, 25-18, to improve to 2-0 in the District 4-3A
standings. Pecos played their first match against Presidio minus senior
hitter Leslie Rodriguez, but coach Becky Granado said Presidio also had
problems against the Eagles' other hitters on Saturday.
"They had trouble with Stephanie (Herrera) and Bre'Ann (Windham),"
Granado said. "Also, they didn't hustle as much as they did when we
played them last Saturday before district.
"They gave us a bunch of free balls, and we made them pay the
price," Granado said. "Our back line of Amalie (Herrera), Maritza
(Sandoval) and Mari (Mendoza) did a good job with their passing free
balls and we took advantage."
Granado said outside of some mid-game problems in Game 3, "We didn't
have to do much on defense, and they also had a hard time with our
serves. When you get 12 aces in one match that tells you they're having
trouble with the serves," she said.
Presidio led early in Game 1, before the Eagles came back to grab a
7-4 and later 21-12 leads. In the second game, the Eagles led from the
outset, but pulled away in the middle of the match, going from an 11-7
lead to a 20-11 advantage.
In the third game, Granado said, "We kept it close for them, but
after a time-out, I got with them and we finally started playing."
The win improved Pecos' season record to 9-13 going into their match
Tuesday night against Monahans. The Loboettes, who went unbeaten in
district play a year ago while advancing to the Class 3A state
semifinals, are also 2-0 in district following their 25-13, 25-16,
25-11 win over Fort Stockton.
Presidio won Saturday's sub-varsity volleyball matches, taking the
JV games 22-25, 26-24, 25-11, and the ninth grade match, 25-17, 25-13.
Eagles miss late chance to get win over Cranes
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Snaps to the quarterback were a problem for the Pecos Eagles on Friday
night against the Crane Golden Cranes. But an even worse - or at least
weirder - snap problem for the Cranes almost pulled the game out for
Pecos in the closing minutes of play.
The Eagles fumbled the ball eight times Friday night, five times on
mishandled deep snaps by quarterback Saul Pina. Two of those in the
second period were immediately followed by a dropped punt snap by Eddie
Vela, which ended up giving Crane the ball inside the Pecos
1-yard-line.
Devon Zimmerman scored on the next play, as the Cranes took a 10-0
lead. The Eagles would fight back from that hole to grab a 14-10 lead
in the third period, on Pina's 20-yard touchdown pass to Oscar Parada,
only to see Crane march down the field in just over 21/2 minutes and go
back ahead, on Alfredo Franco's 1-yard quarterback sneak midway though
the third period.
Problems handling the snap would cost Pecos on their next drive,
when the Eagles lost the ball after moving inside Crane's 25-yard-line.
That left Crane ahead 17-14, which is where the score stood when Crane
got the ball with four minutes to play and were looking to run out the
clock.
Facing a 3rd-and-9 at their own 49, Crane went into a deep snap
formation of their own. But when the ball was hiked by center Oscar
Banuelos, it never reached Franco, ending up in the arms of defensive
tackle Victor Reyes. He headed downfield, past a surprised Franco, and
only had one remaining Crane player and three other Eagles in the area
when the ball slipped out of his hands inside the 40-yard line.
Reyes fell on it, and the Eagles still had a first down at the Crane
38 with 1:48 to play. But their chance at an easy touchdown was gone,
and as was the case in their last home game against Alpine, Pecos'
offense was unable to take advantage of their sudden late-game
opportunity.
Rashad Terry was stopped once for no gain an another time for a
6-yard-loss around a sack of Pina, and an unsportsmanlike conduct
penalty left the Eagles in a 4th-and-33 hole. Crane stopped a Pina
scramble on fourth down and then ran out the clock.
"We had a chance to get in range to kick a field goal at the end,
but our blocking broke down, and there was some poor clock management
on my part," said Pecos coach Patrick Willis. "For some reason, we
weren't getting our signals quick enough, and then we look up at the
(25 second) clock, and it's already at 18."
Pina was able to recover all of the fumbled snaps from center Daniel
Medina, though he did turn the ball over trying to avoid a sack after a
bobbled snap in the third period.
"Our quarterback just was not looking the ball into his hands,"
said Willis about all the fumbles. "I think he was so worried about
what they were doing defensively he wasn't concentrating on the snap."
"We seem to have one series like that each week. We just fumbled in
the whole series and gave them a touchdown," Willis said of the second
quarter snap problems, which were similar to those Pecos suffered in
their game against Alpine that set up the Bucks' winning score.
Chuy Hernandez kicked a 22 yard field goal in the first period, to
give Crane a 3-0 lead, and the Cranes appeared ready to make it 17-0
just before the half. After stopping Pecos deep in their own end and
taking over at midfield, Crane drove downfield and had a 2nd-and-1 at
the Pecos 22 when Zimmerman was stopped for no gain on a run into the
line, and then stopped once more on fourth down after Franco was
stopped by Jaime Muela and Booker Fobbs for a 1-yard loss on third
down.
That gave Pecos the ball, and Pina immediately hit John Parent on a
12-yard pass and two plays later Terry went around right end and raced
64 yards for the Eagles' first touchdown of the night.
"We finally got a chance to show some of our rushing speed, but we
need to be able to consistently do that," Willis said.
Meanwhile, when Pecos avoided their snap problems, Pina was
connecting on 15 of his 19 passes in the game. That included the third
quarter touchdown pass to Parada was set up when Zimmerman was stripped
of the football by Fobbs, with Reyes recovering at the Crane 32.
But after the score and Alex Orosco's extra point kick, his kickoff
went out of bounds, and after a penalty, Zimmerman returned the next
kick to midfield. He then found an opening for a 17-yard run, and
Franco then hit Hunter Seabourne and David Heredia for 12- and 20-yard
completions to the 1. Pecos stopped Crane's first two rushing attempts,
but Franco then sneaked over from a yard out for what turned out to be
the winning score.
Crane ended up with 282 yards in offense, the most allowed by the
Eagles this season, while the Eagles were held to just 158 yards,
thanks in part to the snap problems and to several outright quarterback
sacks on Pina, mostly in the fourth quarter.
"The defense bowed its neck and played well when they had to, except
for that one drive in the third quarter," Willis said. "We scored to
take the lead and then let them come right back and score. I was
disappointed with that, because the kids were not taking care of their
responsibilities."
The game was the fifth straight for Pecos that was decided by a
touchdown or less, and left the Eagles with a 3-2 record going into
their final pre-district game, on Friday at Lubbock High. It was also
Crane's third straight close call, after a 13-12 win over Brownfield
and a 14-7 victory at Seminole. Crane, ranked No. 7 in last week's
Class 2A football poll, improved their record to 4-0 on the season.
At Pecos
Crane 3 7 7 0 - 17
Pecos 0 7 7 0 - 14
First Quarter
Cra. - FG Chuy Hernandez 22, 1:09.
Second Quarter
Cra. - Devon Zimmerman 1 run (Hernandez kick), 8:15.
Pec. - Rashad Terry 64 run (Alex Orosco kick), 1:05.
Third Quarter
Pec. - Oscar Parada 20 pass from Saul Pina (Orosco kick), 9:07.
Cra. - Alfredo Franco 1 run (Hernandez kick), 6:26.
Cra Pec
First Downs 11 9
Rushes-Yds. 32-144 26-29
Passing Yds. 138 129
Passes 14-24-0 15-20-0
Punts-Avg. 3-33.7 6-33.2
Fumbles-Lost 3-2 8-1
Penalties-Yds. 7-55 7-75
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING - Crane, Zimmerman 13-101, Franco 6-11, Garza 10-32,
Hernandez 1-1. Pecos, Terry 11-73, Fobbs 1-(-3), Vela 1-(-12), Pina
15-(-29).
PASSING - Crane, Franco 13-22-0-130, Dodd 1-2-0-8. Pecos, Pina
14-19-0-133, Parada 1-1-0-(-4).
RECEIVING - Crane, Zimmerman 3-38, Heredia 3-32, Galindo 3-32,
Seabourn 2-25, Corley 2-9, McNeese 1-3. Pecos, Parent 5-51, Parada
3-44, Muela 3-30, Terry 1-1, Pina 1-(-4).
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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