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Regional football preview: Texico looks to bounce back

The Texico football team has bounced back before and hopes to do it again tonight.

After two straight early-season losses to Dexter and New Mexico Military Institute, the Wolverines bounced back, winning at Capitan by 20. This week the Wolves look for another rebound — after losing the state-border rivalry to Farwell 39-6 last Friday, they are hoping to beat Eunice at home tonight (7 p.m.) and return to .500 in the process.

That may not be so easy. The Cardinals will be 5-0, ranked eighth in the state and No. 1 in 2A with 139 points and 13 first-place votes, when they visit Texico High School to face the 2-3 Wolverines, ranked sixth with 51 points.

“They’re deserving of their first-place ranking in 2A,” Texico head coach Patrick Crowley said of his upcoming opponents from Eunice. “They’re well-coached; Coach (Ken) Stevens has got it rolling down there, got a great program down there, and we’re excited to see where we stack up when its over.”

Whatever transpires at Texico tonight will be a good measuring stick for the Wolverines, allowing them to tell just how close or far they are to the top team in 2A.

“Most definitely,” Crowley said. “We’ve been working on ’em all week. They do things very, very well. They have depth and speed that I think would worry every coaching staff worth its salt. They play hard.”

Among Eunice’s many strengths is its passing attack.

“They throw the ball very, very well,” Crowley said. “They have a quarterback (Mason Caperton) I believe is a junior this year, and they’ve got some good speed and good-sized receivers. They’re about 70-30 passing-to-run ratio.”

A big reason why the 6-1, 180-pound Caperton has thrown for 1,215 yards and 14 touchdowns with just one pick so far this season. That and completing 71 percent of his passes have given him a 141.8 QB rating. Obviously, he’s a player of the highest priority for Texico’s defense.

“I mean, they don’t totally abandon the run,” Crowley said, “but primarily they’re a passing team as far as I’m concerned. We did work on that. We have to be able to carry out our responsibilities and assignments on the defensive side of the ball.”

The Wolverines also have to keep their own offense chugging.

“We need to finish, not only sustain drives, we need to finish drives just for ourselves,” Crowley said, “and if that keeps the ball out of their hands, it’s another positive for us.”

Farwell at Dimmitt, 6 p.m. MDT

Being on the winning end of last Friday’s state-border rivalry game boosted Farwell to 3-1.

Tonight at Dimmitt (1-3), the Steers are looking to win their fourth in a row after dropping their season opener to Friona. They’ve been on such a hot streak for a few reasons.

“We’re starting to finish stuff up,” Farwell head coach Danny Brittain said. “All those young kids have started to mature over the past couple of weeks. They’re getting some playing time and figuring out what to do.”

And then there’s the lack of injuries, always big for a football team, especially several weeks into the season.

“We’re actually finally getting healthy,” Brittain said. “We’ve had one kid or two out for every game this year. At Dimmitt we’re only going to have one kid out.”

That player is freshman linebacker Carlos Castillo, who suffered a non-football injury. Otherwise, the Steers are good to go.

“Last year we were running about four or five (players) a game that were hurt,” Brittain said. “We’ve been pretty lucky this year.”

Now they just have to beat Dimmitt.

“They’re super-athletic, lots of good skill kids,” Brittain said. “We played ’em in 7-on-7 this summer. ... If we make a mistake they’ll definitely be able to capitalize on it.”

Last week at Texico, the Steers rolled up 459 yards of offense, 440 of which they hammered out on the ground. And it should be same-old, same-old tonight against Dimmick.

“We’re just going to have to run at them,” Brittain said. “That’s what we’re best at is running. We’re going to have to continue doing that.”

Roy/Mosquero at Elida, 1 p.m.

It’s already been a historic season for the Tigers.

They are playing football for the first time in eight years. They won their first home game in eight years on Sept. 15 when they edged Carrizozo 42-35.

And they’re 4-1 on top of all that.

This afternoon, Elida tries to win another home game when Roy/Mosquero pays a visit. And if records are any indication, the Tigers should be able to bag this one.

Roy/Mosquero is 0-4 and has been outscored 250-101 thus far. Aside from that, the team is heading in to play an Elida squad that beat Floyd 47-8, barreling for 243 rushing yards, including 100-plus apiece from Levi Kline and Will Haley.

Elida’s only negative from last week was a safety resulting from a holding call in the end zone.

Melrose at Logan, 7 p.m.

The Buffaloes will give it another go tonight, as they look to end their losing streak at three.

Melrose’s trip to Logan’s Longhorn Field is the first of a three-game road swing, which will continue next Friday at Tatum and conclude on Oct. 12 at Dora.

Tonight’s opponent, Logan, has won two of its last three, improving the Longhorns to 2-3 after an 0-2 start. Last week they routed Foothill 56-16 at home.

Dora at Gateway Christian, 7 p.m.

As he was heading back from distant Pine Hill last Saturday night after his team had won 50-0 in that faraway land, Dora head coach Mason McBee opined that Gateway Christian was “hands down, the best team in the state.”

Tuesday’s statewide prep polls bore out that assessment, as Gateway was ranked first in Eight-man with 101 points and eight first-place votes.

Dora, ranked fifth with 57 points, will visit Roswell tonight and try to become the first team this season to take down Gateway (3-0). A tall task indeed as the Warriors — ranked second in the state by Maxpreps — routed their first two opponents, Tatum and Menaul, by a combined score of 94-6 before beating Mesilla Valley by forfeit last week.

The Coyotes are hoping to be upset specialists tonight on North Sycamore Street.

Floyd at Lake Arthur, 7 p.m.

For a while, Floyd was in it against a deeper Elida team, trailing just 7-2 early.

But 26 unanswered points helped the Tigers put it away.

Tonight, Floyd (1-2) will look to return to .500 at Lake Arthur, marking the Broncos’ second district game of the season. Floyd’s lone win so far came by a 32-24 score against Hondo Valley two weeks ago, but the Broncos seem to have a good chance at another win this week, facing a 1-4 Lake Arthur team whose only victory thus far was against winless Roy/Mosquero.