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 this occasion he struck the football too fast and too hard. Issac Cedillo, to his horror, missed the extra point kick wide to the left.
His team, the Horizon Scorpions, still trailed the Riverside Rangers by a point, 21-20. Issac Cedillo felt disgusted, sick, and useless over missing the PAT kick, letting his teammates down. Riverside went onto to win this league contest at home at Riverfront Stadium 21-20, surviving an onside kick, and then the last three minutes of the game.
You can only imagine how bad Issac Cedillo felt this weekend knowing he could have been a hero, if he would have only split the uprights successfully kicking the extra point to tie the game at 21-21. What was failing to kick a good extra point supposed to teach him? I do not know! Futility, I guess, or how unfair life can be at times? Whatever Cedillo learned from this incident was unjust and unfair! Worthless! But sometimes life can be exactly like that. A real man gets right up after getting knocked down. Issac Cedillo will bounce back up.
With two weeks remaining to play in the regular season, Chuck Veliz’s Montwood Rams are in the driver’s seat to win, yet another District 1-5A Championship after whitewashing Darren Walker’s Franklin Cougars 17-0 last Friday night. Montwood must defeat Americas and Socorro to win an outright District 1-5A crown.
Meanwhile, Franklin must battle a strong El Dorado Aztecs team this Friday night on the west side at Coronado Thunderbirds Stadium, and rhen must face arch-rival Coronado November 6th at the Sun Bowl
.
El Dorado and Coronado are very capable of whipping a badly beaten up Franklin team, still trying to recover from some very serious injuries. Star RB Brandon Behl has missed the last two games with an elbow injury greatly limiting the Cougars offense. Whether Behl plays against El Dorado is unknown. He was dressed in uniform last week at Montwood, but did not play. Several other Franklin players are dinged up, but are still trying to play hurt meaning the Cougars could easily lose their last two games of the regular season forcing them to limp into the 2008 Texas Class 5A State Playoffs.
Irvin’s Memorial Stadium will be the site of Halloween Night’s District 1-4A Championship game between the defending 2007 champion, Austin Panthers, and the runner-up Chapin Huskies.Ruben Batista’s Austin Golden Panthers arrive at this game with Chapin owning a perfect 8-0 record. Austin has also won 18 out of their last 19 football games dating back to last year, featuring an explosive offense and a stingy defense.
Rene Hernandez’s Chapin Huskies enter the Austin game sporting a 7-1 record, losing only to defending New Mexico State Champion Las Cruces Mayfield, 27-9 in the first week of the regular season. Austin won last year’s battle 28-21 setting up what should be a dynamite title game. Buy your tickets early this week!
Nothing has been decided in District 2-4A going into the ninth week of the 2008 campaign. Canutillo, Parkland, and Riverside are all tied for first place with 4-1 District records. The District 2-4A race should become clearer after this Friday night’s All Hallows Eve’s games. Parkland travels to Riverside with each team trying to hang onto their share of first place, while Canutillo journeys 40 miles eastward to play the Ysleta Indians at historic Hutchins Stadium. Meanwhile, Del Valle puts its’ potential playoff spot on the line against the downtrodden Horizon Scorpions.
Congratulations go out to Coach Luis Gallardo and his Bowie Bears for outscoring the Irvin Rockets 43-34 and for winning their third game of the year. The Bears can smell a possible 5-5 record if they can beat their ancient rival, EPHS, on the road at the Tiger’s Jones Stadium and then defeat arch rival, Jefferson, in two weeks. This reporter thinks that a 5-5 record for the Bears would be outstanding for Coach Gallardo and his assistants.
Congratulations to Hank’s junior quarterback, Matt Reyes! The Knights signal caller has thrown 30 touchdown passes and amassed 2,628 yards of passing in only 9 career games. All State WR Ryan Pettis has been on the receiving end of 12 of those TD passes and other receptions good for almost 1000 yards.
Our prayers go out to Americas’ QB Humberto Saenzpardo who was injured in a 20-7 loss to Bel Air. Saenzpardo left Highlander Stadium by ambulance to a local hospital’s emergency room. Hopefully, Saenzpardo will shake off his injuries and will regain his health.
Last week, I posted a 12-3 record with my football predictions. My record for the year is now 78-14 which is good for a 84.8% winning percentage. My predictions for the upcoming week are as follows:
District 1-5A games:
Franklin will rebound to edge El Dorado; Montwood will blast injury plagued Americas; Hanks will out throw Eastwood for TD’s ; Socorro will whip Bel Air
District 1-4A games:
Austin will defend its 1-4A title by defeating the Chapin Huskies; Andress will crush Burges; Bowie will win its second straight game by stopping EPHS; Irvin will regain its pride by defeating Jefferson
District 2-4A games:
Parkland will hold onto its district lead by ripping Riverside on the road at Riverfront Stadium; Canutillo will still be in first place after they beat Ysleta at historic Hutchin’s Stadium; Del Valle will firmly hold on to its playoff spot by hammering Horizon; Mt. View will rejoin the winner’s circle by clobbering San Elizario.
District 4-3A:
Ft. Stockton will whip home-standing Fabens; Pecos will travel 210 miles to get a victory over Anthony; Clint should easily defeat Tornillo.
Other games:
As an independent, Cathedral travels to Marfa to post their sixth win of the year.
Meanwhile, onward thru the fog!