By KRODadmin on 11/18/2008 2:49 PM

Football is a game filled with incredible highs and is a game that can be filled with unbelievable lows. Take for example, Montwood’s miraculous 24-21 victory over Midland Lee in Round 1 of the Texas State Playoffs! How in the world did Montwood Head Coach Chuck Veliz get his team to play at a championship level against the homestanding Lee Rebels, especially after Socorro upset the Rams 21-12 in the final game of the regular season? It is called motivation and coaching ability!
Veliz can resemble a hurricane of great fury, when he is angry, and angry he was after his team lost to Socorro by nine points. His players felt his disappointment in letting a game get away that it should have won. Starting on the day after the Socorro loss, his players began to absorb his motivational tactics.

Veliz tore his team apart for losing to the Bulldogs for starters, but during most of the practice time the veteran coach began to build his team back up praising good plays.. By the t ... Read More »

By KRODadmin on 11/10/2008 10:19 AM

You would think that out of four Class 5A local playoff teams, that the City of El Paso would be lucky enough to win at least one coin toss in order to earn a playoff game. But no! Montwood, Coronado, Franklin, and El Dorado, all struck out batting 0-4 in coin flips. As a result, the very rabid high school football fans in Odessa and Midland will have four first round Class 5A football games to attend this Friday and Saturday.

 

On Friday night the # 4th ranked and undefeated (10-0) Odessa Permian Panthers will host the (6-4) El Dorado Aztecs at 6 PM El Paso time from the 21,000 seat Ratliff Stadium in a Division I, Region I contest. Some 16 miles to the east, (7-3) Midland Lee will welcome (7-3) Montwood to Grande Communications Stadium at 6 PM El Paso time on Friday night in a Division 2, Region I game.

 

Saturday finds (7-3) Franklin invading Ratliff Stadium at 12 noon El Paso time to play the (8-2) O ... Read More »

By KRODadmin on 11/3/2008 11:40 AM

He wears white road jersey #20, trimmed in gold and brown. After last Friday night’s 29-24 victory over Chapin, the Husky players are probably convinced that Austin QB Ernest Raya was actually wearing a red caped, blue jersey, with a gold “S” emblazoned on the front of it. Superman!

Raya certainly turned in a “Superman” type of effort in Austin’s win over Chapin last Friday night in giving the Panthers a second straight District 1-4A Championship, the school’s 15th such title in tts 78 year old football history dating back to 1930..
A review of the 2008 Austin-Chapin District 1-4A Championship game bears out the “Superman” comparison of Raya, without a doubt. For example, the 5-9 inch Raya scored four rushing touchdowns against a very good Chapin defensive unit in leading the Golden Panthers to yet another District 1-4A crown.

It is the way Ernest Raya defeats Austin’s opponents, not the fact that he hit pay-dirt for 24 points against a very good C ... Read More »

By KRODadmin on 10/26/2008 9:12 PM

Football is supposed to teach the young men that play the sport something about the game of life. However, sometimes all football teaches a young man is how futile life can occasionally be. This lesson does not seem to be valuable or worth it.
Take what happened to the Horizon Scorpions last Friday night against the Riverside Rangers. With 3:09 left to play in the fourth quarter, Horizon scored a late touchdown against Riverside to narrow the scoring margin to 21-20.
Horizon Head Coach Robby Morales elected to play it safe by kicking the extra point to tie the game at 21-21. With 3:09 left in the contest, Morales and his Scorpions could still try to win this District 2-4A battle in regulation time or play for overtime.
Coach Morales did the right thing and chose to play for the tie at 21 all. He sent kicker, Issac Cedillo , out onto the field to knot the contest with a successful extra point boot.
Cedillo has been a reliable kicker all year, but on ... Read More »

By KRODadmin on 10/20/2008 8:18 AM

Austin Head Football Coach Ruben Batista has enjoyed an incredible ride over the last two seasons in leading the Golden Panthers to 17 wins in the last 18 games……Batista, who is an Austin graduate, has worked at his alma mater for the last 10 years as the leader of the school’s football fortunes on the gridiron. It was a job he coveted, wanting it very badly, wanting to see, if he could turn the Golden Cats into winners, not losers……He has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams guiding Austin to a District 1-4A championship in 2007, compiling an 11-1 record, and so far this year he has coached the Panthers to a 7-0 record, proving that last year was no fluke……

 Ruben, now owns a 45-44 career coaching record, which is rather amazing considering he had posted a 28-43 mark just two seasons ago. Why, all of a sudden, has Austin won 17 out of its’ last 18 games?  There are a lot of reasons why Austin sports a 17-1 record over the last 18 games on the football field. Prim ... Read More »

By KRODadmin on 10/14/2008 2:35 PM

Week number 7 was one for the fans last Friday night in El Paso in local high school football circles….. KROD picked the Montwood-El Dorado match-up as the Game Of The Week, but honestly we could have picked the Franklin-Hanks contest, or the Del Valle-Parkland battle as the marquee Game Of The Week, and could have done just as well….. Montwood outlasted El Dorado 21-16 to move into a first place tie in District 1-5A with the Franklin Cougars.. Actually El Dorado controlled the game most of the night grabbing a 14-7 lead for 35 minutes of the contest. And then disaster struck!  The Montwood Rams scored two touchdowns in 60 seconds connecting the third quarter to the fourth period hitting paydirt on runs of 5 and 7 yards by RB Domingo Torres. Pass interceptions by Montwood DB’s  Justin Herrera and Joseph Ortega set up Torres’ two runs to glory. Domingo also scored Montwood’s first TD on a 44 yard sprint to the end zone. The (4-0-4-2) Rams travel cross town to (4-1-5-2) Coronado this ... Read More »

By KRODadmin on 10/6/2008 2:26 PM

If you like championship caliber football, then check out the District 1-5A schedule for this week on Friday, October 10th…..The first place El Dorado Aztecs (4-0-5-1) will tangle with the arch-rival Montwood Rams this Friday night at the Socorro Athletic Complex at 7 P.M. The defending District 1-5A champion Rams sport a (3-0-3-2) record, so far in the 2008 season. Montwood Head Coach Chuck Veliz and his staff of assistants have had two weeks to get the players ready to meet the surprising El Dorado Aztecs, thanks to an open date in Montwood’s schedule. It is very dangerous to give Chuck Veliz two weeks to devise a game plan for any team he is scheduled to play because he is a defensive genius and a master motivator. El Dorado coach Jim Althoff will match wits with Veliz Friday night and will not be intimidated by him. This should be an outstanding game. The winner of the contest will reside in first place at the end of the evening…..
 
Franklin is also undefeated ... Read More »

By KRODadmin on 10/2/2008 3:06 PM

El Paso is blessed with several talented, great football players and that becomes evident every Friday night when they perform during a game on the gridiron. For example: El Dorado QB Anthony Lopez passed for 301 yards and 5 TD’S in a 50-42 thriller over the Hanks Knights. Lopez also rushed for 76 yards and 1 TD covering 57 yards….His counterpart last Friday night, Hanks Junior QB Matt Reyes, riddled the El Dorado defense for a staggering 423 yards and 3 TD’S. In five games, Reyes has thrown for 1,444 yards and 17 TD’S…. Matt’s favorite target, first team All-State WR Ryan Pettis lived up to his reputation against El Dorado catching 11 passes for 285 yards and 2 TD’S, despite a constant double team…. However, El Dorado DB Ryan Lopez saved the game for the Aztecs. Lopez intercepted a Matt Reyes pass in the end zone with 30 seconds left in the game…. Hanks was desperately trying to complete a TD pass in order to cut the El Dorado margin to two points, 50-48, and then to play for a tie with a successful ... Read More »

By KRODadmin on 9/22/2008 4:27 PM

District 1-4A and District 2-4A high school football resumes this Thursday night, Sept 24th, when Irvin meets Chapin at 7 p.m. at Burges High School’s new artificial turf field. District 1-5A action returns on Friday, Sept 25th with four games on the slate.

After two weeks of District 1-5A play, the usual suspects sport 2-0 records against the league. Defending champion, Montwood, and perennial playoff combatants, Franklin and Coronado, own perfect district records.

There are two surprise teams in District 1-5A so far this year. El Dorado is 2-0 and Hanks is 1-1. Jim Althoff’s El Dorado Aztecs, 2-0/ 3-1, are a real load for any opponent. Althoff has been the coach at El Dorado since its inception and has already compiled a 12-12 record which is excellent for a new school.

Hanks has put together a 3-1/ 1-1 record suffering its first district loss to Montwood 35-14. Hank’s new QB, Matt Reyes, has already passed for 1021 yards in four games. He ... Read More »

By KRODadmin on 9/18/2008 4:25 PM

Week four of the high school football season is very unique because all District 1-4A and District 2-4A teams will be enjoying  the week off as they get ready for district play in two weeks.

 

Ruben Bautista and his Austin Panthers sport a 3-0 record after the non-district slate of games have been completed. Austin has won 14 of their last 15 games dating back to last year. Panther’s quarterback, Ernest Raya, whipped Read More »