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LUBBOCK Odessa High and Lubbock Coronado had been evenly matched recently as four of the last five meetings had been decided by four points or less. History looked poised to repeat itself Thursday night The result, however, was different as the Bronchos fell 44-27 to the Mustangs at Lowrey Field. “Our guys battled and I saw a lot of great effort tonight,” Odessa High head coach Danny Servance said. “But we just made some mistakes that they took advantage of and you can’t give a good team like that that many chances.” Those mistakes manifested as turnovers as the Bronchos (1-2) gave the ball away four time and could not take advantages of key opportunities in the second half. The Mustangs (1-2) did take advantage and that was the difference in securing their first win. “It always feels good to win,” Lubbock Coronado head coach Seth Parr said. “I thought both teams played extremely hard and Odessa High made us earn it and hopefully this is something that we can build on.” Things looked promising for Odessa High, however, after Aaron Hernandez recovered a fumble on Coronado’s opening play of the game. The Bronchos took advantage as Ivan Miranda connected with Nathan Calvery for an 8-yard touchdown and put Odessa High up 6-0 after a failed two-point conversion. It would be one of three first-half touchdown passes for Miranda. As they did most of the night, Coronado had an answer and it came from the right arm of junior Sawyer Robertson. The Mustangs drove 59 yards in six plays and Robertson capped off the drive with an 18-yard touchdown strike to Jon Hernandez to get his night started. Hernandez finished with 160 yards receiving and three scores. Things nearly turned disastrous for Odessa High after the ensuing kickoff did not reach the end zone and had to recover the ball on its own 1-yard line. The Bronchos were able to work out of a tough spot and marched 99 yards on 16 plays as Miranda found Ameron Alvarez for a 39-yard touchdown to finish off an eight minute, nine second drive. The Mustangs came right back and answered again Robertson completed four passes for 68 yards on the ensuing drive before Charlie Robinson finished with a two-yard run to tie the game 13. After adding a 24-yard Cooper Hamilton field goal, Coronado put its foot on the gas when kicker Hamilton recovered his own onside kick and Robertson ran it in from 24 yards out three plays later. The defense came through as well for Coronado after a Ke’Vondrick Carr interception turned into a 35-yard touchdown pass to Hernandez and capped off an unanswered run of 24 points, including 17 in less than three minutes of game action. “We talked about playing ball control and keeping the ball away from a good offense,” Servance said. “We did for most of the game but we gave them short fields and chances where good teams are going to score.” Odessa High recovered and score a touchdown right before halftime as Miranda found J.C. Ramirez for a 15-yard score with nine seconds to go and put the Bronchos back to a manageable 10-point deficit. That was as close as Odessa High got the rest of the night as the Bronchos couldn’t take advantage of three straight stops by the defense. Coronado’s Javien Weatherly had an interception on Odessa High’s second drive of the half but neither team would add to their totals until the fourth quarter. After the Bronchos were stopped on fourth and one from the Coronado 31, the Mustangs were able to put the game away with two big plays. The first came on offense with a 68-yard score from Hernandez to Robertson followed by a pick-six by Imari Jones that went 55 yards out to seal the deal. Senjun McGarity added a six-yard touchdown run with 55 seconds left in the game to cut the final margin but it was too little, too late. The Bronchos will have a week to regroup before facing El Paso Montwood at 5 p.m. next Thursday on the road. “I thought we did a good job of hanging in there for most of the ball game,” Servance said. “We had guys in position to make plays and we just didn’t. You just have to get back up and try to make those plays next week.”

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Odessa High School Athletics

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES COST ODESSA HIGH AGAINST LUBBOCK CORONADO

TONY VENEGAS

Odessa American | 9/12/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Odessa Athletics