The Goshen Eagles relied heavily on defense and special teams on Friday to defeat the Houston Academy Raiders 20-7.

After executing a methodical 76-yard touchdown drive to start the game, the Eagles offense could not establish an offensive rhythm..

Any momentum by the offense was squandered by penalties, bad snaps and negative plays. The offense had 10 offensive penalties for -50 yards and 6 negative plays for -47 yards.

“We made a lot, a lot, a lot of mental mistakes,” said head coach Bart Snyder. “We’ve got to eliminate those to be a good football team. Those are mistakes we can’t make and expect to win a ballgame.”

Goshen’s defensive play kept the Eagles in the game, allowing only 96 yards on the night and forcing three turnovers. Of those 96 yards, 55 came on two big runs on Houston’s lone scoring drive.

Special teams also played a big part in the win.

Linebacker Corey Peterson recovered two muffed punts, although one was called back for an inadvertent whistle. Runningback Zack Alford returned a punt 60 yards to the Houston 5 yard line to set up a short touchdown pass from quarterback Brock Snyder to Azavion Rogers. A roughing the punter call against Houston Academy extended a Goshen drive.

“That inadvertent whistle hurt us, but everyone makes mistakes,” Snyder said. “You’ve got to just move on from it. Although it could have been costly.”

Snyder said that the Eagles will have to get refocused and play better when they face Zion Chapel at home next Friday.

“We had some things that we saw that we can build off of and get better,” Snyder said. “That’s what we have to do the next few weeks if we want to win. We have some good ball teams coming up.”

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