Down on the South Side of El Paso, the Andress Eagles (2-2, 1-0) travel to Baty-Simmang Memorial Stadium to face the Bowie Bears (3-1, 0-1) in a pivotal District 1-5A showdown for both teams. It’s also a matchup of two very contrasting styles.
Andress comes into this game known for their speed and their athletic playmakers. Led by quarterback Dominique Smith, the offense will look to get the ball to a number of their top playmakers that include the Lewis brothers: sophomore running back Dorian (359 yards rushing, TD) and senior receiver Diego (213 yards, 3 TD).
El Paso Andress QB Dominique Smith looks to lead the Eagles to a win Thursday night over El Paso Bowie (Tony Venegas/TexasHSFootball.cm)
What’s hurt Andress this season are mistakes and turnovers. The Eagles have lost four fumbles this year and untimely penalties those cost them in losses to Pebble Hills and Coronado earlier this year and caused them to fall behind to El Paso High last week before pulling away.
“We just want to consistent improvement and the team correcting those mistakes from last week,” said Andress head coach Jeff Woodruff, “It’s something that we strive for every week.”
The Eagles also have to deal with a number of injuries this season, including one to receiver Keshon White, who has been out with a knee injury since the season opener.
“We have a number of starters out for this week,” Woodruff said, “When a 5A school plays two 6A schools in a row, you’re going to have some injuries. That’s just part of it.”
On the other sideline, the Bowie Bears are looking to bounce back after their first loss of the season to the Burges Mustangs 35-14. Head coach Robert Padilla is also looking to clean up mistakes from last week and taking advantage of their chances in the red zone.
“After last week, it wasn’t so much about correcting mistakes,” Padilla said, “It was more about making sure everyone was focused on our assignments and what we’re doing. We’re not the type of team that takes huge chunks of yardage on every play and we’re not built for that so staying focused will be key.”
El Paso Bowie lineman Troy Torres (77) will be a mainstay on both the offensive and defensive lines for the Bears. (Tony Venegas/TexasHSFootball.com)
The Bears lost 17 seniors from a district championship team a year ago, but the formula remains the same for the Bears to win: control the ball with the running game and a strong defense.
“The guys that have stepped up have been guys we expected to,” Padilla said, “Guys like (defensive lineman) Troy Torres and (linebacker) Ricardo Valles are both doing well and we’ve had a couple of juniors step up as well.”
When these two squared off last season at Andress, Bowie pulled off one of the more surprising wins of the season: a 24-19 win that marked the first win for the Bears over the Eagles in 22 years. That game ended up being the tiebreaker in the District 1-5A race and while Padilla remembers that win well, he knows he’ll have quite a challenge to contain the playmakers of Andress.
“We have to be sound in our tackling,” Padilla said, “There were situations that weren’t good and we have to approach it better this week. We’re just focusing on being 1-0 this week against Andress and on us getting better every time we play.”
—-
Tony Venegas is the assistant editor of Texas HS Football. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @advenegas.
Brought to you by:
