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News-Sun Photo Eunice's Junior Caraza speeds down the field. |
Eunice capped its first perfect regular season since 1958 with a convincing 44-14 win over Dexter. The Cardinals led 30-0 at the half and cruised from there. It's the way championship-caliber teams win – come out, play hard and assert dominance from the opening whistle. Eunice's offense is now averaging 49 points a game this season while the defense has improved – allowing just 9.3 points per game in its last three contests.
Eunice has a week off then finds out its seed for the Class 2A state playoffs on Nov. 5 (which will likely be the No. 1 seed).
Seminole also capped its season with a convincing victory, a 52-6 beatdown of Fort Stockton at Wig Wam Stadium.
The Indians continued their offensive onslaught through district play by racking up 419 yards of offense on 48 offensive plays – an average of 8.7 yards per play. With talented junior quarterback Jacob Burtch (who had 225 yards and five touchdowns passing Friday) triggering this dangerous attack with weapons such as wide receivers Jarod Adams (five catches, 114 yards, 2 TDs) and Caleb Koedyker (four catches, 69 yards, 2 TDs) along with running back Juan Espino (133 yards, 2 TDs, 13 carries), the Indians are going to be tough to beat when playoff time comes around in two weeks.
But I think Friday's most important performance came in a 24-8 loss with Jal falling to top-ranked and defending state champion Fort Sumner. The score is deceiving as Jal was within a touchdown for most of the second half until a late touchdown with 1:35 left in the game extended the lead to 16.
For a Panthers team that started with just 15 players in August, Friday's loss proved it's right there with the best in the state and should give them confidence heading into the playoffs. Jal will find out its seed for Class 1A this Sunday (I'll blog their seed and post a link to the bracket when I get it).
