Saturday, October 6, 2007

Eagles claw win away from Socorro

Warriors score on first offensive play

Nat Holland El Defensor Chieftain Reporter

Socorro struck early and held a lead against Belen for most of the game on Friday, but the Eagles refused to take a loss on their new turf in front of a Homecoming crowd, and turned the game around in the third quarter to win 20-6.

The Warriors scored on their first offensive play on an 80-yard run by running back Alvin Alvarado with 11:42 remaining in the first quarter. Socorro held their 6-0 lead until late in the third quarter.

Socorro (4-2) held the Belen (3-3) offense to 59 yards on 22 plays in the first half, but Socorro's offense was also stymied.

"I'm kind of pleased with the way we stopped them," said Socorro coach Damien Ocampo referring to play in the first half. "As a whole I was pleased with the mental effort."

After the initial 80-yard run, Socorro's offense gained only 29 yards rushing for the rest of the game. The Socorro offense was bolstered by quarterback Emil Matthews, who completed a total of 8 out of 15 passes for 89 yards.

The Warriors drove to the Belen 30-yard line in the second quarter after recovering their own punt due to a receiving misplay by a Belen player. A fourth-down conversion attempt failed, and it was as close as Socorro got to the Belen end zone. The Warriors reached the Belen 30-yard line again in the third quarter, but again failed on a fourth-down conversion attempt.

The Eagles started out slow, but finally managed to break through the Socorro defense when running back Justin Barba completed a 6-yard run to put Belen's first points on the board with 2:22 remaining in the third quarter. The extra point kick was good and Belen took the lead 7-6.

"I'm upset because it feels like the game was taken from us," said Ocampo. "There was a couple of key third-down mistakes. When you go up against a school three times larger than us, you can't make those mistakes, and we did."

Belen quarterback Beau Estrada leaped into the end zone on a 2-yard run with 10:18 remaining in the fourth quarter to give Belen a more confident 14-6 lead. Barba ran in the final touchdown from 5 yards out with 4:05 remaining.

On the following drive, Belen defensive back Orlando Castillo picked off a pass from Matthews intended for wide receiver John Armijo, which put the ball back into Belen's hands to run down the clock.

Socorro rushed for a total of 109 yards on 32 carries. Belen rushed for a total of 246 yards on 57 carries.

"I really feel we played the toughest so far against Belen," said Ocampo. "I just wish we had some 240-pound tackles, but I'll take our guys any day because I know they'll fight."

Socorro travels to play Hot Springs on Friday, Oct. 12, at 7 p.m., for their first District 3-3A game.

nholland@dchieftain.com

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