Football: Bronchos suffer disappointing season-opening loss to Montwood

EL PASO Thud.
That’s the sound the dreams and expectations of the Odessa High football team made Friday night at Socorro ISD Athletics Complex.
Coming into the season opener against El Paso Montwood, the Bronchos had all the hype and 15 returning starters and not only was there talk of a district championship, but an undefeated season as well.
The Rams, however, took care of the latter. Now it’s up to the Bronchos players to see if they have what it takes to regroup to battle for the former.
Senior quarterback Kevin Rodriguez, making his first varsity start, completed 14 of 18 passes for 180 yards and one touchdown and rushed for another score to lead El Paso Montwood to a 20-13 victory over Odessa High.
“We’re just not a very good football team right now,” OHS coach Ron King said after addressing his team. “We can get better and the kids understand that and we will get better.
“As coaches we can get better and we have do to it in a short period of time. But take your hat off to Montwood because they came ready to play.”
The key to the victory for the Rams (1-0) was ball control as Odessa High ran just 14 plays in the first half.
In all, the Bronchos ran just 42 plays on the night; a far cry from last year when they would run 42 plays in a half.
Quarterback Derrick Teegarden, who finished 13 of 19 for 195 yards and two touchdowns, looked up at the scoreboard in disgust afterward and along with running back Bradley Marquez, vowed that things were going to change Monday at practice.
“13 points?” Teegarden said. “There is no way that any team we play should hold us to 13 points; we did this to ourselves.
“This is unacceptable and people have to start stepping up instead of just talking about it, myself included. I made mistakes tonight and I know that Bradley will say that he made some mistakes and that’s just not acceptable for this team.”
Marquez agreed with his quarterback’s assessment of the night.
“We all made too many mistakes and it wasn’t just one guy, it was all of us,” he said. “We suc-ceed as a team and we fail as a team and we are going to have to work a lot harder beginning Mon-day in practice. We have to get practice up to game speed instead of just talking about it.”
The Rams opened the game with a nine-play drive that consumed nearly five minutes off the clock and ended when Rodriguez found wide receiver Joshua Coward alone in the left corner of the end zone to give Montwood a quick 7-0 lead.
The Bronchos, however, answered on their first drive of the night, despite suffering back-to-back penalties that pushed OHS to a second-and-40 from its own 42. Teegarden never flinched, however, finding wide receiver Tyler McQueen down the left sideline for a 58-yard scoring strike to even the game with 4:02 left in the first quarter.
That’s when Rodriguez really went to work, directing a 15-play drive that consumed more than seven minutes on the clock before he capped the 80-yard march off with a 1-yard sneak with 8:33 left in the first half.
That was the separation that Montwood needed, though Teegarden tried to drive the Bronchos into the end zone several times in the second half, only to see the efforts stalled by one of the 10 penalties called on OHS, to the tune of 110 yards.
The senior signal caller finally pulled OHS within a score when he hit Gabriel Rodriguez with a 31-yard touchdown pass with 6:24 left in the game.
It was too little, too late, however for OHS.
“Too many mental mistakes,” Marquez said, with one last look toward the south end zone. “The scoreboard doesn’t lie.”

El Paso Montwood 20, Odessa High 13

Odessa High                 7    0 0                                      6  —                                    13

EP Montwood                 7    7 6                                      0  —                                    20

First Quarter

EP Montwood — Joshua Coward 14 pass from Kevin Rodriguez (Juan Armenta kick), 7:25. Drive: 9 plays, 75 yards, 4:35. Key play: On third and 7 from the Montwood 28, quarterback Kevin Rodriguez scrambled away from pressure and found Coward in the left corner of the end zone.

Odessa High — Tyler McQueen 58 yard pass from Derrick Teegarden (Craig Branum kick), 4:02. Drive: 8 plays, 68 yards, 3:23. Key play: The Bronchos were called for back-to-back penalties after reaching the Montwood 28, moving the ball back to the OHS 42, where Teegarden his McQueen.

Second Quarter

EP Montwood — Kevin Rodriguez 1 run (Juan Armenta kick), 8:33. Drive: 15 plays, 80 yards, 6:29. Key play: After calling its final two time outs of the first half, Montwood watched Rodriguez sneak for a first down on fourth and 1 from the Rams’ 29.

Third Quarter

EP Montwood — Tim Rocha 1 run (kick failed), 6:08. Drive: 8 plays, 58 yards, 3:07. Key play: On third-and-4 from the Montwood 48, quarterback Kevin Rodriguez hit wide receiver Chris Sazo for a 4-yard gain in the right flat to keep the drive alive.

Fourth Quarter

Odessa High — Gabriel Rodriguez 31 pass from Derrick Teegarden (kick failed), 6:24. Drive: 5 plays, 53 yards, 2:06 Key play: On third-and-13 from the OHS 43, Teegarden found running back Bradley Marquez along the left sideline for 21 yards to the Montwood 36.

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TEAM STATISTICS

                        Odessa High                        Montwood

First downs      9                      15

Total yards      266                  251

Rushes-yards 19-71               33-71

Passing           195                  180

Comp-Att-Int    13-9-0             14-18-0

Sacked-Yards Lost                        1-5                   1-12

Punt returns     2-53                 1-5

Kickoff returns  2-41                 2-48

Punts-avg.          4-34.5              4-34.5

Fumbles-Lost  0-0                   0-0

Penalties         10-110             3-25

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INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING

Odessa High

Bradley Marquez 10-21, Derrick Teegarden 8-42, Jairo Galvadon 1-8.

Montwood

Tim Rocha 15-30, Kevin Rodriguez 12-30, Justin Flores, 6-11.

PASSING

Odessa High

Derrick Teegarden 13-19-0-195-2.

Montwood

Kevin Rodriguez 14-18-0-180-1.

RECEIVING

Odessa High

Tyler McQueen 1-58, Gabriel Rodriguez 4-56, Ronnie Marquez 2-31, Bradley Marquez 2-27, Jonathan Lara 2-11, Jairo Galvadon 1-9.

Montwood

Joshua Coward 3-39, Chris Sazo 5-37, Pascual Mendoza 1-41, Tim Rocha 2-32, Demetrious Rouse 3-31.