Pueblo East caps come-from-behind victory with 32 unanswered points
· Yahoo Sports
As we near the end of the regular season in prep football, Pueblo East hosted Pueblo County in the big game of the week in town.
Visit betsport24.es for more information.
The Pueblo East Eagles (6-1) entered the game one spot behind Pueblo County Hornets (7-0) in the 3A South Central league standings. The winner of this game would ultimately end up league champion.
The Hornets came into the game with a high-powered offense, averaging 47 points per game in their undefeated season so far. The Eagles are coming in after a big emotional win over their rival Pueblo South in the Cannon Game.
The Eagles started the game off with an opening drive fumble by quarterback Dolphka Lewis. The Hornets answered with a touchdown run by quarterback Brody Harrison in the first quarter to go up 7-0. Shortly after that, the Hornets scored again, this time with running back Brady Ware to make it a 14-0 game in the first.
Later in the second quarter, Pueblo County scored once again with another Ware rushing touchdown. Pueblo East kicked a field goal at the end of the second quarter to go into the half down 21-3.
In the third quarter, Pueblo East scored a rushing touchdown by Logan Trujillo, and Lewis tacked on the two point conversion to cut the lead down to 21-11. A few moments later, senior defensive back Justin Robles stripped the ball and ran down the field to score, cutting it to 21-18.
After a punt by Pueblo County, Lewis ran it in from 15 yards out to take the lead 25-21. Trujillo added another rushing touchdown to increase the lead to 32-21. Robles would seal the game with his third forced turnover, this time his second interception, late in the fourth to earn the Eagles the 32-21 come-from-behind victory.
“Being down 21-3 is a horrible feeling and you go into that locker room, and you got some 16-, 17-year-old dudes in there, and you know some of them could be doubting themselves a little bit. But I looked in all their eyes, and they all had fire in their eyes,” Eagles head coach Tony Valdez said.
“They knew what they had to do. We knew we had to start fast in the second half," he continued. "We had to get some stops, generate some turnovers, and we were able to do all those things stuck together and got to win.”
The Eagles are now 7-1 with the tiebreaker over Pueblo County. They have two more league games left to lock in their second league title in three years.
“We got to be league champs,” Robles said. “We won two years ago. It's the league championship. That means a lot being a champ. That means a lot, definitely for the program and for us, our seniors, our 27 seniors, it means a lot to us.”
The message to the team is simple from Coach Valdez.
“We want to take care of business against Central and Liberty. But when you go to East High School, you play for championships. We got three under our belts, and we're soaring for four,” Valdez said. “So these guys want to make a run, and we know that starts with getting a good seed in the playoffs. So we want to take care of Central, take care of Liberty, and see what the bracket says.”
Pueblo East plays Pueblo Central next on Thursday, Oct. 22 at Dutch Clark. Pueblo County will be home next Friday, Oct. 23, to face Falcon High School. Both games are scheduled for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo East caps come-from-behind victory with 32 unanswered points