The Eldorado Success newspaper

Eldorado lifters fared well on Saturday during the Eldorado Invitational Powerlifting meet.

John Espinosa placed 1st in the Super Heavyweight Division with a total of 1,245 lbs. in three individual lifts. His results were as follows: Squat - 500 lbs.; Bench - 325 lbs.; and Deadlift - 420 lbs.

Teams from Eldorado, Irion County, Reagan County and Iraan competed in the meet.

EHS senior Ben Wipff was named this week to the 1st Team Academic All-State Football team for Class 1A.

The selection was announced by the Texas High School Coaches Association and the State Farm Insurance, which sponsors the list each year.

To qualify for the list, a student athletes are judged based on grade point average, class rank, and their ACT/SAT test scores. In all, more than 2,200 student athletes were nominated across the state.

Eagles defend home court, win local tourney

The Eldorado Eagles varsity boys’ team ventured south to take on the Sonora Broncos in a regular season game on the Friday before the Christmas break.  The contest saw both teams knotted at 29 each at the half.

Sonora would use a 10 to 0 run over the Eagles to take a 55 to 45 lead into the final quarter.  Eldorado  outscored Sonora 16 to 12 but allowed Sonora to shoot 10 free throws in the final minute and they would connect for 6 that proved to be the back breaker for the visiting Eagles.  Eldorado would fall by final score of 61 – 67 and their overall record would fall to 8 wins and 5 losses.

After the Christmas break Eldorado hosted their own invitational tournament on Tuesday, December 28th.  Eagles would play host to the visiting Comstock Panthers who were sporting a 10-1 record for the season.

Comstock pushed out to an early 19-16 lead after one quarter of play.  The second quarter saw Eldorado score 23 points to Comstock’s 18 and the Eagles led 39-37 at the break.

The second half started out with Eldorado scoring 15 points to Comstock’s 9 and enter the fourth quarter up 54-46. Comstock’s Panthers kept pace and made things interesting down the stretch and outscore Eldorado 13-11.  Eldorado held on to secure their 9th win of the season with a 65-59 win to move to the semi-final round later in the evening against the Nueces Canyon Panthers.

Eldorado’s second game saw them facing a Nueces Canyon Panther team they defeated in the first game of the year back in November by 35 points.

The green team Eagles left no doubt early that they were intent on playing for the championship as they cruised easily to a 65-42 victory with all the players seeing considerable playing action in the game.

The Eagles played again on Wednesday, December 29th in the championship game of the tournament where they took on the Mason Punchers.  Mason had defeated Rocksprings in the first round and then in the semi-finals they pushed past Sonora 40-35.

The game began with Mason taking an early lead with their pressure man- to-man defense that slowed down the fast breaking Eagle team. The halftime intermission saw Eldorado trailing 28-29.

The third quarter would prove to be the difference in the contest as the Eagles  outscored Mason 13-2 and took a 43- 31 lead into the final stanza.

Mason would not go away quietly as they outscored the Eagles 17-10. The Punchers then pulled to within four of the Eagles with 28 seconds left to play.

Eldorado would execute a long half court in-bounds play that worked to perfection, then connected on the bucket and a foul that resulted in a 3-point play that pushed the Eagles  margin beyond Mason’s reach.

The Eagles finished the game with a 53-48 win to make their season record 12-5.
More importantly the Eagles will have two more regular season games left on the schedule before district play begins in two weeks.  As of press time the Eagles will have traveled to Miles and next Tuesday,

January 11th the JV and varsity Eagles will venture to Brady to take on the Bulldogs while the girls will be at home playing their second district ballgame of the season.