Junction football team hopes to take a step in the right direction in 2022
When a new head coach takes over, there will oftentimes be some growing pains along the way and that's been the case with the Junction High School football team.
In Scott Freeman's first year as the Eagles' head coach, Junction finished 3-7 overall and 0-5 in district last season.
Junction will look to make some traction in District 14-2A Division I this fall, despite being picked fifth by Texas Football magazine.
The Eagles are built for the future with a strong sophomore class and just a handful of upperclassmen.
Junction returns six starters on both sides of the ball.
Offensively, quarterback Caden Roberts (6-foot-2, 160 pounds) will share the backfield with fellow sophomores Angel Cruz (5-10, 150) and Aidan Cardwell (6-1, 185).
With one season in the new system, the Eagles are more comfortable with Freeman's Air Raid offense.
"Being here for the second year is great," the Junction coach said. "The great thing about that is my entire staff from last year stayed. I think (the players) understand and realize our expectations."
After beating out a senior to be the starting quarterback last year, Roberts suffered a concussion around Week 3 or 4 and was moved to running back.
The sophomore QB heads into the fall as the Eagles' trigger man again.
"I'm real pumped for it," Roberts said. "These running backs I've got here in the room are my life savers, I tell you what. They're some great dudes."
Cardwell has put on about 15 pounds of muscle.
"I started hitting the weights with one of our seniors last year and he was just a very big boost to my ego and helped me get to where I am right now," Cardwell said.
Freeman says Cardwell and Cruz give the Eagles a strong 1-2 punch at running back.
"Aidan's a big power back and Angel's our speed back who can get outside and definitely stretch the field for us," the Junction coach said.
"Our offensive linemen, I think, will be our strength, though. Last year, we had to use a new offensive line, all 12 in both scrimmages and 10 straight weeks. That was not fun."
The O-line will include: sophomore Marco Ponce (6-0, 160); senior Rafael Benavides (5-10, 330); Gavin Gonzales (5-10, 160); junior Richard Colvin (5-9, 150); and freshman Sergio Ochoa, among others.
"I think we're going to make quite a bit of touchdowns," Colvin said. "We've got a pretty good offensive line going this year, good running backs and a good quarterback."
Cruz added, "I trusted Cardwell a lot being my lead blocker, and he can run the ball pretty well, too."
Freeman talked about how things will look on the other side of the ball.
"As far as the defense goes, we're replacing pretty much all of our linebackers from last year with younger kids, but that's OK," Freeman said. "I love the way they're flying around the ball right now.
"We're doing a couple different things on defense, but we're really fast and we're flying to the ball. The secondary is going to be our strength on that side because of Angel, Eliseo (Rivas) and Ragan (Levien). And Caden Roberts, he's moving from outside linebacker to a safety. All those guys have experience. Angel had four or five picks as a freshman before he had a season-ending injury, so we're excited to see him back and ready to go."
Junction is scheduled to open the season on the road against De Leon on Aug. 26. The district opener will be Oct. 7 at home against Stockdale.
Texas Football picked Mason to win the district title, followed by Stockdale, Johnson City and Harper.
The Eagles don't want to be the only one left out when the postseason arrives.
"We have some playmakers and I think that's the thing that excites us as coaches, and we play and we practice extremely hard," Freeman said. "Our youth will show at times, but I do think that by the time district gets here, we're going to be able to be competitive in every game.
"It's going to be a dogfight. If a couple plays here and there go our way, we're going to be just fine."
Freeman senses that his players are hungrier this time around.
"The kids that we have this year, they busted their tails in the summer," Freeman said. "Again, it helps when your coaching staff stays. We had a great summer, and before that, a great track season and a great baseball season.
"The spring was great. Being at practice, there's a little bit different energy. There's been a couple days when we had to tone down practice because of how physical we were. The freshman class we have, it's not just a typical scout team you're going against. They're getting after us and they're making us better, and so that's been a lot of fun."
The Eagles are built for the future with so many young players, but there's also an urgency to get things going in the right direction in 2022.
"I'm not only excited for this year, but I think our junior and senior years are going to be great football seasons for us," Cruz said.
"If we can do well this year, it just helps us to pump ourselves up for the next two years."
If the Eagles are able to surprise some people and make the playoffs this year, Freeman says it would do wonders for the program.
"Not making it last year hurt, but honestly, it's been awhile since we've been in the playoffs," Freeman said. "I think it's been two or three or four years now since we've been in there.
"But, just for the program as a whole and how young we are, we're going to have 95% of our guys back for the next year. If we can't get in this year, which I do believe we can if things go our way, just for the program morale, that's going to shoot us into basketball season and hopefully we're competitive and fighting for a playoff spot there and then we get to track and baseball and hopefully (we do well in those sports, too)."
Freeman concluded, "Football's kind of the exciting time of the year where everyone's fired up, and if you have a good football season, that kind of bleeds into other sports. So we're hoping to do that."
Junction Eagles
District: 14-2A Division I
Head coach: Scott Freeman (3-7; all at Junction)
Last year’s record: 3-7, 0-5 district
Last district title/playoff appearance: 2003/2020
Enrollment: 165
Stadium: Eagle Stadium
Returning lettermen: 14
Returning off./def. starters: 6/6
Base offense: Wing-T
Base defense: 4-2-5
Team strength: Returning experience
Team weakness: Depth
Players to watch
ATH Aidan Cardwell (6-0, 185), QB/DB Caden Roberts (6-2, 160), RB/DB Angel Cruz (5-9, 160), OL/DL Gavin Gonzales (5-10, 160), RB/LB Julian Barrera (6-1, 170), OL/DL Marco Ponce (5-10, 185), OL/LB Sergio Ochoa, OL/DL Rafael Benavides, WR/DB Ragan Levien
2022 schedule
Date Opponent
Aug. 26 De Leon
Sept. 2 San Saba
Sept. 9 at D'Hanis
Sept. 16 at Cross Plains
Sept. 23 Grape Creek
Oct. 7 Stockdale*
Oct. 14 at Harper*
Oct. 21 Mason*
Oct. 28 at Johnson City*
*District game
2021 results
Ingram Moore W 14-0
San Angelo TLCA 20-14
Iraan W 57-0
Hico L 7-24
Mason L 0-42
Menard L 6-7
Miles L 7-49
Rocksprings L 20-24
Christoval L 0-48
Eldorado L 14-56
This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: Junction football team hopes to take a step in the right direction
