The Goshen Eagles head into Friday’s game against rival Elba searching for confidence and an identity.

Two weeks ago the Eagles picked up their first win of the year defeating Calhoun 36-8, blowing out their season high in points. Last week Goshen couldn’t follow up the performance falling to Houston Academy 26-0.

This week head coach Bart Snyder is looking for an identity for his players.

“They are starting to buy into the philosophy,” Snyder said. “They are young, regardless of what people say they are a young football team. We have to keep building them up. That’s our jobs as coaches. We can’t beat them down; they’re already down.”

With the offense struggling to score points, the defense has been relied on to hold up against teams that can put up big points in a hurry.

“The defense has looked OK,” Snyder said. “Houston Academy scored on a short field last week from us turning the ball over and make mistakes.”

Elba comes in with a perfect record of 5-0 on the season, including 3-0 in the region. Elba is currently tied with Luverne atop the Class 2A Region 2 Standings and relies on a group of 12 seniors to lead the way. Elba also is coming off a 28-7 win over Daleville a week ago and has outscored opponents 232-40 so far this season.

“They have good coaching and really good leadership,” Snyder said. “They are going to run the spread offense and they will come out and play on top. They made it to the championship game last year. They feel like they have a shot to get there again.”

Snyder sees the challenge for the Eagles as a simple one: “We are going to have to come out and play mistake free football,” Snyder said. “We need to play mistake free football and hope that they make a few mistakes.”

And Snyder thinks Goshen still has a shot to make the playoffs, as well.

“We have time to make the playoffs,” Snyder said. “That was obviously not our goal we wanted at the beginning of the year. We wanted to win our region and be at the top of the state. If we can make it to the playoffs, everything starts all over again and it’s a brand new season.”

Kick off between Eagles and Tigers is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Eagles Stadium in Goshen.