By Devin Smith

A close game at the half ended up looking much less competitive on the scoreboard after the final buzzer Friday evening when the Goshen Eagles fell to the Elba Tigers 31-6 at home.

After an Eagles punt on the opening drive the Tigers would take the ball 84-yards and get the 2-point conversion to take the early 8-0 lead.

Goshen would quickly answer back, taking the ball 80-yards for the 9-yard touchdown pass by Deangelo Orum.

He would finish the game 3 of 7 for 40 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions, and both followed touchdown drives by Elba, which put Goshen in a tough position as the game progressed.

“Our guys did really good a different times in the game,” said head coach Bart Snyder. “We just had some mental letdowns. We’re really beat up, but we need to do some immediate fixing to become a better football team.”

The Eagles faired much better running the ball, finishing the game with 217 yards.

Unfortunately for Goshen the Elba running game was equally effective, racking up 290 yards led by Darrean Burks who totaled 143 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries.

The Tigers efficient passing game also assisted in Burks’ performance, the balanced attack kept defenders at bay and opened up running lanes from the opening whistle.

Second-half letdowns have been an unfortunate theme for the Eagles this season, and it is something that coach Snyder is hoping to focus on as the season progresses.

“We just didn’t play well in that second half,” said Snyder. “So now what we have to learn how to do is finish. We have to get in the right state of mind, it’s that simple.”

It the post-game huddle with his team Snyder talked about heart, gesturing at his chest and saying, “Your a great group of young men, the biggest thing we have to fix is right here.”

As for the Tigers they followed the same pattern as recent weeks, and after Friday are outscoring opponents 183-24 in victories.

Head coach Ed Rigby was pleased with his team’s performance on the road despite an excessive amount of penalties by his team.

“Well we played a little sloppy,” said Rigby. “If there is a state record for penalties we tried to get to it tonight, I have to let my kids know that those are not the types of records that we are going for.”

He doesn’t blame all of it on his players though, despite the scoreboard the Eagles played Elba hard from whistle-to-whistle and induced a few of the penalties themselves.

The bottom line is that Goshen is tough,” said Rigby. “They’ve got two or three guys on their team that are as good as anyone we will see this year.”

Now sitting at 2-4 the Eagles need a quick turnaround with the season inching ever closer to the playoffs, and coach Snyder believes that his team’s problems are all internal and fixable.

“We have to get focused on ourselves and fixing ourselves,” said Snyder. “That’s the only way.”

The Eagles will travel to Central-Hayneville next Friday looking to get on the right track, kickoff is set for 7 p.m.