By Sean Holohan

It’s playoff time for the Goshen Eagles.

After completing their season with a 6-4 overall record, a mark head coach Bart Snyder said no one believed they could attain, the Eagles will look to keep the surprises going by making a run deep into the playoffs.

But all of Goshen’s regular season success will mean nothing Friday night when the Eagles host Geneva County in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs.

The old mantra still rings true: win or go home.

And in the eyes Snyder, Friday night might as well be the start of a brand new season.

“It is winner stays, loser goes home,” Snyder said. “This is it. This is the game that is most important to us and that is how we are looking at it right now.”

Goshen capped its regular season one week ago with a disappointing 34-0 loss to undefeated Brantley. And although the Eagles would have liked to go into the post-season with momentum off of a win, Snyder said he is pleased with the way his players are rebounding.

“Brantley is an extremely good ball team, you’re not 9-0 going into that game for no reason at all,” Snyder said. “We look at what we did there and see the areas in which we need to work on and that’s what we’re going to work on this week going into our game against Geneva County.”

But disappointments aside, Snyder said he liked some parts of his team’s performance last week, namely the Eagles’ rush defense.

“I was pleased with our run defense and I hope that will continue,” Snyder said. “We are making better decisions with the football throwing, too. We’ll be fine.”

Key to Goshen’s offense is establishing the run game. The Eagles are a run first, pass second team who have been able to win games when they’ve had success on the ground.

In Geneva County’s three losses, the Bulldogs’ defense was prone to giving up big plays en route to big points. Snyder said getting running back Terrianno Griffin and company going on the ground early would be big for the Eagles Friday.

“We’re going to do what we’ve been doing and hope that we are able to make some blocks and execute better,” Synder said. “We are going to control the ball and hopefully get some first downs along the way and not have to punt as much as we did last Friday night.”

To Snyder, the success of his team this season is exciting. It represents just how far Goshen has come since August. But it also represents the strength of high school football in the Pike County area. In addition to the Eagles, three other Pike County are schools are making appearances in the playoffs this season.

But come Friday night at 7 p.m., Snyder knows there will be no better place to see football than at Eagle Stadium.

“We always have a good group of people to support us