Lake View's 2018 Progress Hints at Resurgent 2019

SAN ANGELO, TX-- The Lake View Chiefs haven’t had a winning season in 14 years following a 3-9 showing in 2018. Their season ended in a 55-23 loss to Wichita Falls Hirschi on Saturday.

Don’t let that 3-9 record fool you, though. Lake View is set up for a resurgent season in 2019. They snapped an 18-game losing streak, won their first district game since 2015,  and won their first playoff game since 2014 this past year. Those last two streaks were broken consecutively for the Chiefs’ first win streak since 2014.

The Chiefs lose 21 seniors from this year’s team. Among those are three key components to this team in Kendall Blue, Ahmad Daniels and Adrian Villa. That trio accounted for 23 touchdowns for the Chiefs.

That exodus of seniors is a sort of changing of the guard on the northside of San Angelo. They’re the last group who had significant ties to the program under previous head coach Doug Kuhlmann. They had to re-learn the game when transitioning to head coach Hector Guevara’s spread offense. That created some bumps along the way in the first two years under Guevara.

The 2019 group led by QB Albert Rodriguez and receiver Johnny Espinosa will, for large part, have only known Guevara and his system. Rodriguez will be a junior and Espinosa a senior.

Rodriguez stepped up to take the reins of Lake View’s offense late in the year after moving Blue from quarterback to running back. That proved to be a vital change and opened up some other dimensions for the Chiefs down the stretch. The two had alternated out early in the year before Rodriguez took over late in the year.

Espinosa was a ball hawk on the Chiefs defense. The junior intercepted 11 passes this season and will likely be a focal point in their secondary next year.

Also take a look at the Chiefs’ last game. They played against a Hirschi team that is well established in the Class 4A ranks. Nobody really gave them a chance.

Yet, they stayed close with the Huskies for the better part of the first half. As soon as Hirschi scored their first touchdown, Lake View wasted no time answering as Rodriguez found Espinosa despite being draped in coverage. Espinosa then shed tackles to find his way into the end zone for the 67-yard touchdown.

Eventually the depth and skill of Hirschi prevailed over the young, inexperienced Chiefs and the most magical 3-9 season came to an end.

So where does Lake View go from here? Up. The table will mostly be the same with Lake View guaranteed to make the playoffs.

The only way to do that is consistency. The Chiefs lacked that through most of the season. To their credit, they played three consistent games in a row to close out the season.

If they can build on this momentum next season, the Chiefs could likely meet Hirschi again or even get a more favorable draw in playoffs.