Eagles Rally For Road Win 24-17

By
September 17, 2005

Last week the Abilene Eagles had their hands full with Lions, as in Brownwood Lions. The Eagles escaped with a hard fought homecoming victory 17-15. Their reward for that win was to carry their 3 and 0 record on the road to take on a bunch of undefeated Tigers, as in Belton Tigers. The task of winning on the road was no easier than the victory over Brownwood last week at home.

Several things happened in the game with Belton that had not occurred this season for this particular flock of Eagles. These pesky Tigers scored on a 39 yard pass play before the Eagles had an opportunity to put the ball in play offensively. Abilene High as a result found themselves trailing for the first time this season. Adding insult to injury, these same pesky Belton Tigers also stopped Abilene High from scoring on the Eagles first offensive possession of the game, another first for this season. Not only that, they almost shut the Eagles out completely in the first half. The Eagles did manage to get on the board by virtue of the leg of Cory Rodriguez who kicked a 22 yard field goal as the first half was winding down making the half time score 10-3 in favor of Belton.

For the second week in a row, the Eagles of Abilene High made some very uncharacteristic mistakes. Missed tackles, especially on kick coverage, punting problems caused by not getting the ball snapped to the punter put the Eagle D in some very tight and uncomfortable situations. Throw in a fumble and primarily what you have is your defense on the field for a long time and a very short field at that. Penalty flags. Did I mention those?


Without a doubt, the Belton team played inspired football against the visiting Eagles the entire game. Another factor that hampered the Eagles from moving the ball when on offense in the first half was the absence of some key players. The Eagle offense did not get untracked in the first half at all. I don’t believe that time of possession stats are kept in high school football but trust me, the Eagles were way on the short end of that, especially during the first half.

Once the second half started, the Eagles looked like the Eagles of old. The offense started strining plays together for the first time all night. Lyle Leong and Jason Boone made their presence felt and the long awaited running game finally came around. When you can run the ball, good things happen and that allows you to pass as well. I have not seen any stats on this game but I doubt the Eagles had a 100 yards of offense in the first half and I am thinking they must have wound up with 400 or so yard by the time the game was over.

Time and time again, the Eagle D responded when it had to and they really seemed to step it up in the second half. The great running back for Belton got some yardage against the Eagles but was no where close to his average of over 250 yards a game he has enjoyed this season before tonight.

Kick coverage and punting need special attention this week and I suspect both areas will be tweaked.

Good game overall Eagles. You are now 4-0!

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