El Paso Franklin is the easiest team in Texas to gameplan for, yet the hardest team to defend.

Just ask Julio Lopez, head coach of crosstown rival Eastwood. Typically, his defense has different formations for certain down and distances, like adding more secondary players on third-and-long. Not against Franklin. You know, they know, your grandmother in the stands knows who’s getting the ball. 

“We have to fully commit - on all four downs - to slowing down Ernie Powers,” Lopez said.

Notice that he said slow down. Only a fool thinks they can stop Powers. It’s only a matter of time before he rips off a 75-yard touchdown run. You just have to pray you’ve done enough on the offensive side to keep pace. 

“He’s one of those players where every time he touches the ball, you hold your breath as an opposing coach because you feel like he can break it from anywhere on the field,” Lopez said.

By this point in the season, El Paso coaches must be blue in the face from a lack of oxygen. Powers is averaging 317.1 rushing yards per game in the state’s largest classification. He is El Paso’s single-season rushing touchdowns leader with 38 scores in eight weeks. Frankly, the only time he’s been stopped this season is when head coach Ruben Torres pulls him when the score gets out of hand. 

“If I’m lucky enough to coach another 10-15 years, I can’t imagine I’ll get the chance to coach another running back like this,” Torres said.

Powers is 5-foot-10.5 and 190 pounds of pure muscle, which, combined with the forward lean he runs with, creates the optical illusion that he’s shorter. It’s hard to find him behind an offensive line with Kansas State commit Justin Morales (6-4, 275), UTEP commit Eric Sandoval (6-6, 260) and right guard Martin Contreras (6-2, 300).  But spotting him isn’t even half the battle. Torres says last week’s game against Socorro was the first time all season he saw one defender bring Powers down. A cornerback dove at his ankles when he wasn’t looking. 

Teams have tried to load the box against Franklin. The problem is that Powers has a 10.62 100-meter dash, running on Franklin’s 4x100m relay team that broke an 85-year Chandler Rotary Track and Field Invitational record. When - not if - he gets past the first level, he’s gone. 

Powers takes a little more of the defense’s resolve with every run, as the nightmare that’s played out in their heads every night before the game comes true.

There is no precedent for what Powers is doing, but the Powers name loomed large in El Paso long before Ernie got to high school. He is the youngest of five brothers in a football family, all of whom played at Franklin. Growing up, the Powers brothers would organize neighborhood tackle football games. It didn’t matter that Ernie was a decade younger than his oldest brother. Even then, he showed glimpses of a future 2,000-yard rusher. 

“Our neighbor actually talked to me not too long ago and said, ‘I always knew you were going to be the best. Every time we played, you were running all over us,’” Powers said.

His brothers, David and Steven, were accomplished players in their own right. Torres, who served as El Paso Franklin’s offensive coordinator from 2018 to 2020, remembers that the two linebackers played with an old-school mentality. David and Steven were so serious that coaches even wondered if they enjoyed football. Off the field, Ernie wears a constant smile, forever the needling younger brother. But on game night, his features change as he takes on the Powers’ presence. He only knows how to play this game one way.

Really, his entire high school career has been about emulating his brothers and living up to his family name. Torres still feels like David, currently a graduate transfer at Incarnate Word, and Steven, who earned an Army offer as a junior, didn’t get the attention they deserved as recruits. But for Ernie, then in eighth grade, his brothers had cracked a door he would run through. 

When Powers broke his fibula in his sophomore year and had to miss the season, the most painful part was not being able to prove yet that he wouldn’t drop the baton his brothers had handed him.  

“I knew I had family history with my brothers being good at Franklin,” Powers said. “I felt like, when I broke my leg, I couldn’t prove that I was going to be as good as them. So, in the offseason, it really motivated me to come back and showcase what I could do.”

Powers runs as if that lost time still gnaws at him, like every time he touches the ball might be his last chance to equal what his brothers did. But somewhere along the line, whether it was the 2,224 yards he ran for as a junior, or the 2,537 he has so far as a senior, he stopped competing with his brothers and started competing against himself. 

This season, Powers is running past a series of numbers he keeps in his head. He’s rushed for more yards than he did last year. He shattered El Paso’s single-season touchdown record. He scored seven touchdowns twice, the city’s mark for most in a single game. But there is still one glaring box left unchecked. He wants to rush for 3,185 yards this year, which would best Aaron Dumas’s 2019 season with El Paso Americas. 

And while those are individual accolades, Powers and Torres both view it as a team award. Not only is the offensive line dominant, but Torres says his wide receivers are the best blocking group he’s ever had. 

“Christian Staple, our wideout, blocks his ass off every play,” Powers said. “As I’m running down the field, I always see him throwing someone down out of the corner of my eye. It motivates me to run harder.”

But Powers doesn’t just represent the Franklin program; he’s a microcosm of a rising recruiting hotbed in El Paso.

“Very little of Ernie’s story is about him,” Torres said. “It’s about El Paso football and the talent that we have here. I can’t think of a better pioneer for it than Ernie Powers.”

Now that Powers has attained three-star status, the Class of 2026 is the first in the history of Dave Campbell’s recruiting rankings where five El Paso players have earned a star. Del Valle quarterback Jake Fette, an Arizona State commit, represented the city at the Elite 11 quarterback finals. El Dorado running back Ryan Estrada is a Minnesota commit with over 20 offers.

But there is still a gap between the talent El Paso now has and the view the outside world has about it, and Powers falls through that crack, just like his brothers before him did. Despite the absurd numbers, he has just four offers from UTEP, Air Force, Navy and Lehigh. When El Paso Eastwood coach Julio Lopez was preparing to play Powers, he received a call from a college coach asking if Powers was actually good, or if it was just the competition he was facing. It’s like every accolade is qualified with the stigma that El Paso football is not the same as the rest of Texas high school football.

“To me, Ernie is every bit as good as Ryan Estrada, and we’ve played them both the last two years,” Lopez said. “I am a little surprised that one back has Alabama and all these schools that have come down, and he’s committed to Minnesota, and it feels like Ernie is about to have one of the most special seasons in Texas history, and he’s not getting the attention he deserves.”

And while the lack of recruiting attention frustrates Torres, he also understands the playoffs provide his team with a chance to do something about it. The lack of postseason success clouds the narrative around El Paso football. Del Valle was the only El Paso team to win a playoff game in 2024. Every team in Franklin’s District 1-6A lost in the first round last season by an average margin of 36.5 points. 

“If you really want to get that recognition, making the playoffs isn’t enough,” Torres said. “You’ve got to do something in the playoffs. Every round that you can go gives you a chance to get more exposure, because the pool is a little more condensed. There’s a lot on the line to go out there against 6A playoff teams in Region I and show how good you are.”