ELBA – Despite holding the Elba Tigers scoreless in the first quarter, fumbles and a sluggish offense proved costly for the Goshen Eagles in their 53-10 loss on Friday.

Region rival Elba, now 6-0, remains undefeated. Goshen falls to 4-2 on the season, 3-1 in the region.

“Well, first, Elba is a very good ball team and a they do a lot very well,” said head coach Bart Snyder. “We have put ourselves in position to win the turnover battle (in prior games) but tonight we didn’t.”

Like previous games, Goshen relied on its defense early in the game. The Eagles scored with 19 seconds left in the first quarter on a 37-yard field goal by Daniel Macias.

But Elba quickly struck back, recovering a fumble at the Goshen 40 yard line. Cavossea Stinson scored on a 32-yard run, with Ramsey Rigby connecting for the two-point conversion. It was the first of four fumbles that would lead to three Elba touchdowns.

“You can’t fumble four times inside the 35 giving them that short of a field,” Snyder said.

The Tigers scored again with two minutes left in the second quarter on a 15-yard run by Stinson. The conversion gave Elba a 16-3 lead at the half.

Goshen scored again in the third quarter after D’Errius Kite recovered an Elba fumble and returned it 49 yards for a touchdown. Macias kicked the extra point, and Goshen closed the gap to 16-10.

Elba scored three more times in the third quarter, the first set up by a Goshen fumble at their own 14-yard line. The second came on a 2-yard run by Blake Edwards and the third on an 80-yard pass from Rigby to Grant Akridge.

Goshen rallied in the fourth quarter, mounting a 75-yard drive led by freshman quarterback Brock Snyder, who completed a 58-yard pass to Bryant Stephens to move Goshen to Elba’s 22-yard line. DaQuan Foster followed with a 17-yard run but Goshen fumbled on Elba’s 5-yard line.

That set up a 95-yard touchdown run by Elba’s Stefan Caldwell and a two-point conversion by Dee Williams, giving Elba a 46-10 lead with 8:58 remaining in the game. Elba’s final score came on a 3-yard run by Williams and a PAT.

Goshen ended the night with 264 yards total offense to Elba’s 436. Terannio Griffin led the Eagles with 14 rushes for 53 yards and Kite followed, with six rushes for 40 yards and one touchdown.

Tyler Phillips led on defense for the Eagles with seven tackles, four assists; Shelby Styron had four tackles, three assists; and Kite had two tackles, one fumble recovery.

“We just didn’t play well,” Snyder said. “That’s my fault and it’s my job to get us where we need to be. And I promise, we will work at getting better. It is up to us what we want to be…

“We have some good players and some good coaches, and if we do like our cheerleaders preach and ‘believe’ and get back to hard work, we will be fine.”

Goshen hosts Central Hayneville next Friday for homecoming. Kickoff is 7 p.m.