PREP FOOTBALL: PLAN YOUR VIEWING NOW
The Journal’s James Yodice looks over the 2019 schedule and offers the week-by-week highlights. See the composite metro-area schedule and a team preview of the Eldorado Eagles as well.
(Another in a continuing series in the countdown to the Aug. 22 season opener.) Coach: Charlie Dotson (13th year; 93-50) Last season: 7-5; beat Hobbs in 6A first round, lost to Centennial in 6A quarterfinals Returning starters: 5 offense, 4 defense
Key players: Keith Alvarado, sr. (6-1, 240, OT/DT); Joey Burke, sr. (5-11, 235, C/NG); Ben West, sr. (6-0, 190, FB/LB); Elijah Goree, jr. (5-10, 175, RB/CB); Nick Petty, jr. (6-0, 165, QB); Zack Hofman, sr. (5-8, 145, WR); Elijah Smith, sr. (5-6, 136, FS); Nathan Ellis, sr. (6-4, 282, OT/ DT)
Outlook:
Dotson cheekily remarked to someone that the 2019 Eagles would set football back about 50 years with the new-look, run-dominant offense Eldorado expects to operate in this, its 50th season of football. New offensive coordinator Greg Henington, who was Belen High’s head coach the last three years before joining Dotson’s staff, has plenty to work with, including the backfield tandem of West (827 yards, 14 TDs) — who also is the team’s best linebacker — and Goree (960/4). West is the bigger, more bruising of the two. Petty at QB stepped in last year when Gabe Smith was lost to an injury, and under trying circumstances performed commendably. What will happen if and when the Eagles have to overcome a big deficit and can’t rely solely on their running game? That certainly is one of the questions that Eldorado will have to answer. Alvarado (first team) and Burke (second team) were 6A All-State selections last year on defense and are as good a lineman tandem — on either side of the ball — as there is in the metro area. Those two must stay healthy for the Eagles, who want to slow the game down, run fewer plays and stay fresher into November. The defense may even start a freshman or two, Dotson said.
2019 schedule
(x-denotes District 2/5-6A game) Aug. 22, West Mesa (W), 7 p.m. Aug. 31, Las Cruces (W), 1 p.m. Sept. 6, at Cleveland, 7 p.m. Sept. 13, Atrisco Heritage (W), 7 p.m.
Sept. 20, at Albuquerque High (M), 7 p.m.
Sept. 27, at Del Norte (M), 7 p.m. x-Oct. 11, at La Cueva (W), 7 p.m. x-Oct. 18, Clovis (W), 7 p.m. x-Oct. 24, Manzano (W), 7 p.m. x-Oct. 31, at Sandia (W), 7 p.m.
Circle the date: La Cueva is always a tempting option — that the Eagles play the Bears coming off a bye week isn’t necessarily a good thing for the burnt orange — but I’d have to pick Week 2’s matchup against Las Cruces. That will be the first true litmus test of this new-look Eagles offense under Henington, a former Mayfield assistant, going up against Bulldawgs coach Mark Lopez.