Week Seven High School Football Recap Featuring Podcast

An action-packed week seven of high school football wrapped up over the weekend. Check out Football Friday Night on demand to relive the action from last week:

Coronado wins a key 6A battle over El Dorado

By Brandon Cohn 

Desperate for a win, the Coronado T-Birds took on El Dorado at Quarles-Brooks Stadium on Friday evening. Both teams came into the contest recently being bitten by the injury bug.

Coronado was without QB Owen Levesque who suffered a grade two shoulder separation at Eastwood last week, while the Aztecs got good news as their RB Ryan Estrada returned after a five-week absence.

The Aztecs would strike first as Estrada scored on a 3-YD TD run. The score remained 7-0 in favor of El Dorado at the half.

Coronado came out poised in the third quarter as backup QB Ben Wilson scored on a 57-YD QB keeper, but the PAT was no good and El Dorado maintained a narrow 7-6 edge.

The T-Birds would then step up defensively and shut down the Aztecs for the remainder of the game. RB Thomas Murray would go on to score two crucial touchdowns to solidify the 19-7 victory for Coronado.

The T-Birds improve to 2-5, 1-4 1-6A and will next play at Americas on October 20, while El Dorado falls to 0-6, 0-4 1-6A, and will host Americas next Friday.

Del Valle takes first place in 1-5A with a dominating 63-28 win at Parkland

By Jeremy Carranco 

Del Valle scored early and often Friday night against Parkland, beating the Matadors for the 14th straight time, 63-28.

The Conquistadores (6-1, 2-0) never trailed, going up 21-0 early in the second quarter. The Matadors (4-3, 1-1) didn’t score until the 7:32 mark of the second quarter. The closest the game would get was 28-14 and 35-21 before Del Valle took off for good in the second half.

The win puts Del Valle in first place in District 1-5A with Ysleta’s 21-14 upset win over Bel Air.

Del Valle was led by sophomore QB Jake Fette who passed for over 350 yards with three touchdowns. He also scored two touchdowns on the ground.

Ray Nunez and Johnathan Estrada had huge nights receiving for the Conquistadores. The pair of juniors caught for over 130 yards with two touchdowns each.

Parkland’s Kaleb Martinez returned another kickoff for a touchdown, giving him three in two games.

Senior Anthony Carrillo ran for over 180 yards and two touchdowns in the loss.

Both teams will have byes next week.

Eastwood’s defense hangs on again to stop Americas’ second-half comeback

By Dave Gest 

The Eastwood Troopers scored on the third play of the game when quarterback Evan Minjarez broke loose for a 70-yard rushing touchdown.

The Americas Trailblazers answered back with a score of their own on the ensuing drive. After converting a 4th and long with a 15-yard pass from quarterback Mark Moore III to Abdiel Rincon, Americas tied the game at 7 with a 5-yard touchdown run by running back Brian Promesse.

Eastwood would go on to score touchdowns on their next two drives, a 20-yard touchdown pass from Minjarez to wide receiver Fabian Penaloza and a 1-yard run by Minjarez, his second of the game.

The Troopers forced Americas to punt then forced a fumble and took over deep in their own territory. After getting two first downs, Eastwood lined up to punt. The Troopers' long snap sailed over their punter’s outstretched arms and was recovered at the Eastwood 15-yard line.

Americas’ running back Brian Promesse then scored his second 5-yard touchdown of the game to cut Eastwood’s lead to 20-14 with 1:20 left in the first half.

The Troopers got a 50-yard kickoff return and then quickly scored quickly on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Minjarez to wide receiver Alex Sanchez with 12 seconds left in the first half. They went into halftime with a 26-14 lead after a failed two-point conversion.

At halftime, Minjarez had thrown for 146 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for another 104 yards and two scores. Trooper wide receiver Rudy Garcia had 5 catches for 80 yards including a 40-yard toe-tap that set up the touchdown pass to Sanchez just before the half.

On the opening drive of the second half, Americas gained a couple of first downs before punting for the third time.

Eastwood took over in their own territory and was pushed back by three penalties of their own. From inside of his own 5-yard line, Minjarez launched a deep ball that was picked off by Americas’ top prospect defensive back/wide receiver Anthony Miranda, his fifth of the season. This was just Minjarez’s second interception thrown this season and Miranda returned it 45 yards.

Americas’ quarterback Mark Moore III scored three plays later on a read-option to cut the Eastwood lead to 26-21 with a few minutes to play in the third quarter.

On the following drive, Eastwood made it to the red zone after a spectacular one-handed 20-yard grab by wide receiver Rudy Garcia on 4th and 8. Four plays later, they failed to convert another fourth down.

Americas would then go three and out. Then, flags again plagued Eastwood, forcing a 3rd and 31 and then a punt that went for only 20 yards.

Americas was set up in Eastwood territory to take the lead. After two first downs, quarterback Mark Moore III muffed a snap, then got sacked for a total of 23 yards lost. On the next play, he was intercepted by Eastwood’s defensive back Jayden James.

Eastwood would go three and out and punted inside their own 5-yard line with two minutes left in the game.

Americas got one more chance. On 3rd and 20, with just under a minute to play, Mark Moore III came up five yards short on a scramble. On 4th and 6, Eastwood’s pass defense locked up Americas’ receivers and forced Moore III to throw out of bounds.

Eastwood improved to 5-1 (4-0) with the 26-21 win and Americas fell to 4-3 (3-2).

Minjarez finished with 207 passing yards, a touchdown and an interception. He added 111 yards on the ground and two scores. Wide receiver Rudy Garcia collected 7 grabs for 142 yards.

Americas quarterback Mark Moore III posted 135 passing yards, 35 rushing and a score.

Now in first place of District 1-6A, the Troopers will take on Socorro (0-7) next week.

Americas falls to fourth place and will look to rebound against El Dorado (0-6).