Lions beginning to roar

Spencer Patterson

Thursday, Sept. 19, 2002 | 9:44 a.m.

Kyle Homeyer vividly remembers the helplessness that washed over him every time he and his Sierra Vista football team walked onto the field last season.

"Last year, you knew when you started the game you were going to get whupped," said Homeyer, a senior linebacker and fullback. "Nobody had fun. Everybody was out there because they had to be.

"It just felt like we wasted a whole year, like we didn't accomplish anything."

The Mountain Lions finished their inaugural campaign 0-7, and even their winless record didn't tell the full story. Despite playing a schedule of Class 2A and 3A competition, Sierra Vista was outscored 250-12, scoring just two touchdowns.

"We probably gained 100 yards all season," Homeyer said.

Two weeks into the 2002 season, however, the Lions' fortunes have taken a sharp turn. After consecutive wins over Chaparral and Eldorado, the second-year school is one of just six unbeaten local 4A squads.

Sierra Vista will put its unexpected winning streak on the line at 7 p.m. Friday when it visits Basic (1-1).

"The preseason isn't as important for some teams, but with us not winning a game last year it was very important for us to do well for our confidence," said Ben Johnson, who came over from Chaparral to replace John Racek as Lions coach last spring.

"Young kids are very impressionable, and no one wants to be part of a team that's not winning. If we would have gone 0-4 in the preseason, it would have been tough. But we have a new attitude, and that's been a big plus."

Sierra Vista's defense has led the surge, allowing just three touchdowns and pitching six scoreless quarters. This week, that unit will come up against a potent Wolves offense Johnson calls the best his club has seen.

"It will be a tough game for us," Johnson said. "Basic is a little bit bigger than they have been in the past, and they're balanced run-pass. Chaparral and Eldorado didn't throw the ball very well against us, but Basic definitely can."

Like Sierra Vista, Basic suffered through a winless 2001 season, going 0-9. But after a 20-point week one win over Bonanza and a near-miss against Cimarron-Memorial last Friday, the future appears bright.

Junior quarterback Chris Montano, who made his case as one of Nevada's up-and-coming stars last year, has thrown for 350 yards and three touchdowns. Receiver Brandon Hawkins is the team's big-play threat, while the versatile Gary Hurt has found the end zone four times already.

"We hit a long pass on the fourth play of the game last week, and then we kind of lost our focus," Basic coach Cliff Frazier said. "The kids started thinking it was going to be easy, and we dug holes for ourselves. Hopefully, we won't do that again this week."

Frazier praised his defense's improvement from week one to week two.

"We were concernd about how we were going to do defensively -- if we'd played defense against Cimarron like we did against Bonanza we would have been in trouble -- but I was pleased with what we did," Frazier said. "It was like bend but don't break."

The Basic defense will need to keep tabs on Sierra Vista's two top play-makers: Homeyer and senior receiver Jeff Henle, who also starts at safety. Henle pulled down two touchdown passes and racked up 145 yards against the Cowboys and Homeyer followed with two scores and 100 yards of his own versus the Sundevils.

"We've got a different attitude," Henle said. "We go into games believing we can win. Getting those first wins was big, but we're still trying to get some respect, and Basic will be the toughest team we've played so far."