Red Riot

Crosstown rivalry
BY LEE SCHEIDE/Odessa American

Odessa High defensive end Dejion Rangel was tired of waiting — tired of waiting to hit someone and tired of waiting for a victory over crosstown rival Permian.

Friday night at Ratliff Stadium, Rangel and the rest of his defensive mates took care of both issues.

Rangel and Eddie Garcia each had two sacks of Panthers quarterback Steven Pipes. Adam Daniels and Matt Gonzalez shared another and the Bronchos linebackers and defensive backs inter-cepted four passes as OHS earned a hard-fought 26-7 District 2-5A victory.

The victory improves the Bronchos to 4-1 overall and 4-0 in district play, alone in first place. It also snaps a three-game winning streak by the Panthers in the series.
“I was ready to put pads on and hit someone,” Rangel said in the middle of a raucous celebration after the game. “We knew that it was going to be a tough game, but we wanted to get out and take control of the line of scrimmage from the start.
“This is awesome.”

The entire Bronchos defensive unit came to play from the first whistle, which is why OHS coach Ron King likes to defer if he wins the coin flip. It gets his defense settled down quickly and Friday night, the Bronchos settled in and heated up the Panthers (2-3, 2-2) very quickly.

This was the first OHS game I've been to in quite sometime and probably the last one I'll got all season so I suppose I picked the right one. I came away pretty impressed with OHS aside from the fact that the players are so small. When I was in school I remember players being bigger. And I was the same size then so I don't think I'm imagining it.

Other than that, I got to see Bradley Marquez at running back. I've been hearing that this kid is good for some time and he is just as advertised. He loves running to the outside and will have to develop a more straight forward approach at the next level but that shouldn't be a problem. He has the frame to support more weight. With his elusiveness, he would really look great in Tech's system.

So to recap. The Bronchos are now 2-18 against the Panthers with me in attendance. Go Bronchos!

P.S. - I guess this is the way football players blow off steam these days. I don't think it beats rap wars and Keystone talls but what does?