Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Jaguars still seeking first win, Sartans are up next

Coach says team is improving weekly

Jason W. Brooks News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jbrooks@news-bulletin.com

Tomé According to their coach, the Valencia Jaguar football team is improving every week. Jaguar players, coaches and fans keep hoping each week there will be enough improvement to grab the school's first-ever varsity win.

The 0-6 Jaguars take on St. Pius in a Saturday game at Wilson Stadium.

"We might surprise a few teams," said Valencia coach Ed Johnson after his team's 59-22 loss to Belen at home on Friday. "We're a first-year varsity team, but that's no excuse. We're getting better in each game, and the first half we played tonight was our best half of the year so far."

The Jaguars, who actually led the Belen Eagles 22-14 at one point in the first half of Friday's game, are performing well at the skill positions, especially early in each contest. But the second quarter has been a huge pitfall for the Jaguars, and so has getting beat on both lines and in the secondary.

"We put the ball on the ground (fumbled), and we're still getting overpowered by most teams," said Johnson. "But these kids never quit."

Class 4A St. Pius (2-4) is coming off a defense-powered 21-14 win over 3A St. Michael's. While neither offense could move the ball consistently, it was the Sartan defense that held up, protecting a 21-0 halftime lead.

The 4A Jaguars, who still have another pre-district game against Grants next week, are hoping they can use their game experience from this season and their football smarts to beat the tradition-rich Sartans.

St. Pius, while having a rough start this year, has won district titles in nine of the past 10 seasons. Freshman quarterback Trey Casaus, making his first varsity start, passed for 77 yards with two interceptions in the win.

"Our defense put us in the best position to win this game," St. Pius coach San Juan Mendoza told the Albuquerque Journal after last Thursday's game.

"It's tough to tell our kids to be physical," said Johnson. "We try to tell them to use leverage and take angles."

Johnson's team tried out a number of new formations against Belen, including the rarely used swinging gate offense and some Wing-T alignments. Quarterback Orey Feerer returned to his spot behind center after a two-week absence from that position, and Orlando Ortiz sat out Friday's game due to a scary looking injury the week before.

"Belen has so much size, we just tried to get their big guys off of our guys a little bit," said Johnson. "We'll come up with a game plan for St. Pius."

Johnson said his team still lifts weights after school, but he plans to propose to Los Lunas Schools Superintendent Walter Gibson the idea of a "zero period" weightlifting opportunity before school for athletes.

"I think he'll go for it," said Johnson. "We don't have an athletic period. I've gotten about two-thirds support from the players for zero period. Even if we only got 50 percent, that's a start."

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