Riverside Rangers: High School Football Preview

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The Riverside Rangers had a quality season last year going 9-2 but fell short of their playoff ambitions with a Bi-District round upset exit to Big Spring.

"It has put a chip on their shoulder that's for sure," Head Coach Gary Recoder said. "Our expectation is to play for an area championship every year and our kids want to win the region and they know what that takes and they've worked really hard. So that played a huge impact without a doubt on our offseason program. Our kids have come out and worked really hard."

The Rangers plan on using that loss, plus their seven returners on both sides of the ball to once again be the team to beat in 4A in El Paso even though they will be without Division 1 (NMSU) player, Angel 'Speedy' Munoz in the quarterback position.

"There's definitely some pressure, pressure 100% but that's what is going to take you all the way, proving everyone wrong," Senior quarterback Derek Vasquez said.

The dual-athlete will step into the QB1 spot behind the same offensive line from last season, led by Devan Quintana.

"We will feed off our O-line. We're going to run a lot," Recoder said. "Offensively we're still going to be as explosive as we have been in the past, no doubt."

"We need to go undefeated," Quintana said. "It's not a big thing for us not to win but it is to be undefeated. That's been a challenge for us these past few years, we've lost one game but we need to go 10-0 this year." 

Riverside are ranked No. 24 in Class 4A Division 1 by Dave Campbell's Texas Football Guide. They begin their season on Friday, Aug. 25th at Ysleta. You can catch all of the highlights that night on the Borderland Blitz.