Pueblo East’s Bryson Torres. (Daniel Davis Photography)
PUEBLO — During the entire offseason, Bryson Torres was on a mission to make an impact on Pueblo East High School’s football team.
Torres’ hard work paid dividends.
The sophomore has started the first two games for the Eagles and been superb. He rushed for 260 yards and scored four touchdowns in the Eagles’ opening wins over Longmont (41-25) and Coronado (20-14).
“Bryson has done a phenomenal job,” veteran East coach David Ramirez said. “We are not surprised in any way because he has worked his butt off for this opportunity and it’s nice to see a kid who has worked as hard as Bryson succeed. He just has great character.”
Torres’ success certainly didn’t come against lesser opponents.
The Trojans and Cougars are both Class 4A schools. Actually, Coronado won the 3A title a year ago and moved up this season. Those wins vaulted Pueblo East from outside of the Class 3A CHSAAnow.com poll to No. 3 in the latest rankings. East lost to Silver Creek 34-17 in the state quarterfinals a year ago.
“The season has gone really good,” the 5-foot-9, 180-pound Torres said. “I was little nervous in that Longmont game, but after I made my first run, I just realized I needed to play football like I always have.”
The play of Torres, who has 45 carries in the first two games, definitely has the attention of junior Eagles’ quarterback Danny Martin.
“Bryson and I were going to the gym all the time in the offseason and I saw how hard he was working,” the 5-foot-9, 170-pound Martin said. “Still I was surprised how well he has done. The best thing about Bryson is he just puts his head down and runs north and south and he has good speed.”
On Friday, Torres and the Eagles will get another stiff test when they clash with rival Pueblo South in the Cannon Game at 7 p.m. Friday at Dutch Clark Stadium.
The 4A Colts advanced to the state semifinals last season before losing to Montrose. South blanked Ponderosa 35-0 in its opening game Friday.
“There are going to be a lot of emotions running high and two good teams are playing and this should be a good game,” said Torres, who also is a sprinter on East’s track and field team. “If we could get this win it would give us a lot of momentum.”
The Eagles won the Cannon Game in 2012 and Ramirez knows other victory in this intense game would give his team a jolt.
“It would be very exciting for our community and it would be great to bring the Cannon back to the east side,” Ramirez said. “For us trying to get to a state championship, if we had three wins over three quality 4A schools, that would be a huge step in that direction.”