Twenty-one exhausted players stumbled off the Fowler field. Defeated and drained by their opponent, their far-away gaze was unmistakable.

Football?s latest loss to Fowler, 45-7, on Sept. 30 left FC with their fifth consecutive loss, all non-league rivals.

The first half belonged to the Redcats as they moved the ball on the ground throughout. Johnny Mendoza opened the scoring on a 42-yard touchdown run and the Redcats never looked back. Mendoza finished the game with 123 yards rushing on 11 carries and two TDs.

Mendoza rushed a total of 123 yards on 11 carries and scored twice in the first half.

Their quarterback, Santana Leal, completed 10-12 passes for 161 yards while the Eagles picked up their only score after Joey Montejano, ?06 scored on a 7-yard rush up the middle and finished the game with 21 yards on 7 carries.

Though the Eagles were spared injuries, the Redcats defense harassed and covered the Eagles who did not complete a pass.

?Their defense just wouldn?t let us score while every pass we threw was knocked down,? Nick Erickson, ?07, said, ?We quickly found that a run would be the only way to put us in the end zone.?

Though Fowler won, the focus now rests on the remainder of the season. The Eagles next take on Farmersville, their first Northwest League rival, on Oct. 7 at Clark Intermediate.

?Our opponents up to now have been some of the hardest in the league,? John Hall, varsity coach, said, ?With a bad combination of injuries and fundamental errors, we were unable to cover our losses as they continued to mount over time.?

Some of the players felt that injuries and errors remained the final cause of their losses.

?We just haven?t had a strong offensive drive this season, and with the loss of Kilgore as quarterback, found ourselves unable to score against our hardest rivals,? Michael Combs, ?07, said.

With hopes of their first win, the Eagles find comfort in their past experiences against their Farmersville contenders.

?Being that we?ve won against them for the past few years, I think we hold a better chance of winning this game than most other teams in our league,? Ryan Brunn, ?08, said.

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