Eagles prepare for region foe Samson

Published 9:15 pm Monday, October 4, 2010

The fans in Goshen have been all smile the past couple of weeks.

And with much reason to be.

Since its second week loss to Elba, the Eagles have taken off, winning four-straight weeks.

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Last week was a particularly good reason to celebrate for GHS and its fans, thanks to its 60-6 win over Calhoun to cap off the school’s Homecoming week.

The win improved the Eagles to 5-1 overall and 3-1 in 2A Region 2 play.

Like it did the week before, GHS will spend this week preparing for another region foe, this time with the Eagles hitting the road to take on Samson.

“The guys have really done a great job in buying into the philosophies here and are really focused,” Eagles’ head coach Bart Snyder said Monday afternoon at the team’s practice.

“(The team) found out what it was capable of during the Pike County game, and since then, they have been working hard in practice to keep the results the same.

“This is just a good, hard working group we got here,” Snyder added.

The Tigers of Samson were one of three times tied for second place in the region coming into week five, however, a loss to Red Level brought SHS down to 2-2 in the region, and 4-2 over all.

As one of the new comers to the region, this will be the first time in almost half a decade the Eagles and the Tigers will meet on the gridiron.

“Samson is a very well coached and discipline team,” Snyder said. “There’s no doubt about it.

“Offensive, they are very athletic and run the option very well. And defensively, they are very tough and disciplined.

“(Samson) does a lot of things well on the football field. This is going to be one of the biggest games we play all season long,” the coach added.

In last week’s win over Calhoun, as they have all season long, the Eagles dominated the running game, as running backs Reginald Foster and Marcus Jackson rushed for 128 and 130 yards, respectively.

The senior Jackson added six touchdowns, one of which was a 99-yard punt kickoff return.

While there was much rejoicing, there was a little bit of concern as well, as starting quarterback Jerome Lawrence was taken out of the game early on due to a shoulder injury.

Sophomore quarterback Russ Thomas filled in the for the disabled quarterback the rest of the game, but after testing on Monday, Lawrence will be ready to go come Friday night.

“I thought Russ did a fine job for us,” Snyder said.

“He made youthful mistakes, but that is going to happen with a player who has not seen a lot of action.”

While Lawrence has been a main contributor to the Eagles’ offense this season, both on the ground and through the air, it’s been the running attack that had led the way, starting with Jackson and Foster.

Both backs have eclipsed the century mark on the ground all but one time each this season and the past two weeks, Foster has rushed for 276 yards and Jackson have rushed for 243.

“That’s what we do best with as many good running backs as we have on the team,” Snyder said.

“This is a team that is focused on doing everything it can to win. We take it one game at a time. We are focused on Samson this week and we are going to work towards winning this game and getting closer to the playoffs.”

The Tigers will play host to the Eagles this week, with the kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.