THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Odessa High School Athletics

Under the lights at Lubbock’s Lowrey Field, as Thursday’s season opener wore on, amid all the flashing chaos and physical intensity of varsity football, Trey Smith would step to his place behind center. As his line got set in front of him, he’d survey the field. Then, in the strange stillness just before each snap, he’d hear something. “I could just hear him back there, breathing.” Then Smith would take the snap, turn, and give another handoff to Josh Lara — who’d power into the bodies ahead for another gain. Lara rushed for 152 yards and a touchdown on 33 carries in Odessa High’s 28-24 win over Lubbock Monterey last Thursday, churning his feet to power for yards on handoffs just like that one all throughout the night. In the junior’s first varsity start, Lara was a workhorse for the Bronchos. “He kept coming,” Smith said earlier this week, as the Bronchos quarterback thought back to Lara’s efforts — and described how he could hear his classmate huffing and puffing next to him in the backfield before taking even more handoffs. Between the whistles, though, Lara was tireless, powering his way to an impressive debut performance. “It was very exciting,” Lara put it simply after Bronchos practice Tuesday. Last Thursday, he ripped off a 14-yard gain on Odessa High’s first offensive play of the game, on his first snap as starting running back for the Bronchos. He went on take nine handoffs on Odessa High’s 12-play, 79-yard opening drive, capped by his five-yard touchdown run where he bounced outside and helped put Odessa High up 7-0 early. Lara didn’t slow from there. He ran for 118 yards on 18 carries in the first half, then took 15 more carries in the second half. His running was as crucial as ever in the final four minutes or so. He broke off an eight-yard run early in the drive then converted a third-and-four with a five-yard run to give Odessa High a first-and-10 at the Monterey 12-yard line on the Bronchos’ scoring drive that cut the game to 3 points and allowed Odessa High to win it in dramatic fashion on special teams in the final moments. At the end of that drive, when a penalty gave Odessa High first-and-goal at the 3, Lara pounded his way inside to the 2 before Smith kept it to score and make it a 24-21 game with 1:52 to go. “I was getting tired, but I just couldn’t let my team down,” Lara said. “I told my line before, I was like, ‘Y’all go blood, sweat and tears to the last whistle, and I’ll do the same for y’all.’” That night finished as an impressive showing for Lara and that new-look Bronchos line. Smith had another 42 rushing yards and that 2-yard rushing score. But it was Lara who carried the load in the backfield, powering his way to those 152 yards, averaging 4.6 yards a carry. Lara played junior varsity through most of last season, just coming up to varsity to dress and take a single carry in the 2016 season finale at Midland High as a sophomore. Given that, the Bronchos coaches admit they couldn’t quite be sure of how his first start as a varsity running back would go — but they knew he had that kind of performance in him. “We knew how hard he works in practice,” Odessa High head coach Danny Servance said. “The old adage is, ‘You play the way you practice.’ And he practices hard every day. It did pay off and he did come out and play exactly the way he practiced. “He just had a great outing.” Bronchos running backs coach Eric Langehennig said he expected Lara to have a strong debut. “I checked with him before the game and I asked him, ‘How are you feeling?’ And he goes, ‘I’m ready,’” Langehennig said. “And that’s Josh. He’s a kid of not many words, but when he talks, he’s always been a kid who, when he says he’s ready, you know he’s ready.” On the field, the Bronchos were confident in Lara, too, and there may have been no one with more confidence in Lara than the one giving him those handoffs: his classmate, Smith. With several of the Bronchos’ leading rushers from last season no longer in the backfield, outsiders were left to wonder whether Lara would be capable of carrying the load for Odessa High if he was called upon. For Smith, there was never a doubt. “I’ve known him since we were little. I’ve always known what he can do,” Smith said. “I’ve always believed in him. “I don’t think everybody believed in him and knew what he could do — and he went out there and he showed them all what he’s about. He had a great game.” Lara will look for a repeat performance tonight as Odessa High hosts Amarillo High at 7:30 p.m. in Ratliff Stadium. “It just kind of makes me mad that people don’t think that I’ve got it, to be their running back,” Lara said. “So what I’m trying to do is come out and surprise them.” He did that Thursday. Now, defenses should know Lara’s coming. And the last thing they might want to hear is that heavy breathing from the opposing backfield, as Lara gets going. “He seems like he gets more energy as the game progresses, and that’s the kind of back that you like,” Servance said. “He really does a good job of getting going and getting stronger as the game continues.”

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Odessa High School Athletics

ODESSA HIGH’S JOSH LARA SHINES IN BREATHTAKING DEBUT AT RUNNING BACK

JUSTIN LEE

Odessa American | 9/6/2017

PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Sterkel