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 time Montwood arrived in Midland for Friday night’s game with the Lee Rebels, Veliz had convinced his players that they could win this playoff game. Veliz told his players that they belonged in Round 1 of the Playoffs against Midland Lee, and could defeat the Rebels, if they executed their game plan.. Veliz’s game planning was brilliant.
The Rams jumped on top of the Rebels grabbing a 12-0 lead in the decisive first quarter thanks to QB Louie Tinoco’s TD strikes to Issac Cisneros and Chris Sazo for 19 and 14 yards.
Star RB Domingo Torres also picked up valuable yardage against the Rebel defense and eventually scored on a 7 yard run in the third quarter. A week before Torres had to leave the Socorro game with a knee injury. More than anything else, Coach Veliz got his defensive unit to play stifling football. In the first quarter, when the game was really on the line, Montwood allowed Midland Lee to run only eight plays from scrimmage with no yards gained.
The last time an El Paso team eliminated a Permian Basin team from the playoffs also involved a Chuck Veliz coached team. In 2000, Veliz’s Del Valle Conquistadors’ stunned Abilene 14-10 to advance to the state quarterfinals. Before Del Valle’s victory over Abilene, the 1990 Andress Eagles coached by Allan Sepkowitz, shocked the Midland Lee Rebels twice in one year. In the opening game of the 1990 season, Andress whipped Midland Lee 10-3 at Andress Stadium. Then on Saturday November 24th, Andress fought Midland Lee to a 21-21 tie, but lead 5-3 on penetrations inside the visitor’s 20 yardline. Future New York Jets All-Pro DB Ray Mickens ran the Eagles to victory as a QB scoring on romps of 29 and 4 yards.
Next up for Montwood is the Mansfield Tigers next Friday night at Midland’s Grande Communications Stadium at 6:30 PM El Paso time. The 6-5 Tigers stunned #3 ranked Abilene 20-14 last Friday night to advance to the Area Round. Montwood will enter the Mansfield game with an 8-3 record and will be heavy underdogs once again!
Talk about inspiring! What about Cathedral’s first round state playoff victory over the San Antonio Antonian’s 21-14 in a Parochial post season game played no less in San Antonio, some 592 miles from El Paso.Cathedral’s coaching staff, players, and entourage, bused to the Alamo City beginning on Wednesday in what had to be an exhausting ride. The Apaches of San Antonio did not travel at all to play in this game.
Irish RB Chase Calvillo buried San Antonio by himself scoring three TD’s on a 198 yard rushing performance on 27 carries. Cathedral outgained the Apaches 307 yards to 237 yards in total offense.
Unfortunately, Cathedral will have to get on a bus again this week to play Addison Christian in Dallas next Saturday night at Tom Landry Stadium. Dallas is only 640 miles from El Paso. The Road Warrior Irishmen will have traveled 2,464 miles to play its’ last two games round trip. Cathedral has every reason to be proud of its’ 8-3 record, but something is terribly wrong with being a constant road team!
Now for some of the lows associated with the Texas Playoffs. Scott Brooks’ Canutillo Eagles played a great game in destroying Allan Sepkowitz’s Andress Eagles 48-7. However, the 9-2 Eagles will have to play the #7 ranked Frenship Tigers without star RB John De La Rosa, who suffered a season ending shoulder injury, while trying to make a tackle in the third quarter of the Andress game..John rushed for 1,959 yards and 22 TD’s this season, but will have to watch the Frenship game from the sidelines. What a loss!
Now it’s up to Scott Brooks and his staff of assistant coaches to convince the rest of the players that they can still win the game with Frenship next Saturday afternoon in Pecos.
Locally, there are strong rumors that Wade Ardoin of Eastwood and Rick Miller of Americas have coached their last football games. In Ardoin’s case, Eastwood suffered thru an 0-10 season in 2008, and the Troopers are 41-74-0 under his direction in 11 years on the job. Americas posted a 1-9 record in 2008, although local experts thought they would be much better. Miller owns a 10-20 record in only three years on the job.
Elsewhere, San Angelo Central coach Steve Heryford lost his job after the Angry Orange Bobcats plummeted to an 0-10 record this past season. Heryford lead San Angelo Central to an 11-22 record in three years on the job. He was making $89,175 a year to guide the Bobcats. Reportedly, Midland Lee’s loss to Montwood this past weekend will cost Randy Quisenberry his job. Quisenberry has coached Odessa, Abilene Cooper, and Midland Lee to a 71-45-0 record over the last 12 years. However, Midland Lee was only 30-27 under Coach Quiz’s direction in five years of hard work.
I came down to earth last week in picking games going only 5-3 for a 62.5 winning percentage. Overall, I have correctly guessed at an 83.0% clip with a record of 112-23.
This week, I will have to take Mansfield over Montwood, Frenship over a crippled Canutillo team, and Abilene Cooper over Del Valle. Parkland will lose its’ second round playoff game, and Addison Christian will whip road weary Cathedral.
I hope I am very wrong about the El Paso teams and their second round match-up’s this Friday and Saturday.