The Goshen Eagles hope to bounce back from their first loss of the year when they host Calhoun at Eagles Stadium on Friday night.

The Eagles (5-1, 3-1) fell to Luverne last week 27-26 in a battle for first place. Despite the letdown, Bart Snyder’s Eagles have rebounded nicely during this week of practice.

“Coming off a week like that against Luverne is definitely tough,” Snyder said. “Getting refocused and getting ourselves where we need to be is what we have been working on. The guys are doing good. We just have to get focused.”

The Eagles have made an effort all season to cut down on penalties and mistakes that hampered them much of last season. Mistakes played a factor in last week’s game, including a key roughing-the-punter penalty that cost the Eagles a possession.

“We just have to eliminate certain penalties that you shouldn’t have in a game,” Snyder said. “It cost us some things in that ball game. Also, there were some missed executions on some plays. Those are the things we’ve got to eliminate. If we eliminated those mistakes, it couldn’t have been any closer than a one-point ball game, but we feel it definitely would have been a little different.”

After starting the year undefeated, last Friday night was a good wakeup call for the Eagles.

“We feel like it is,” Snyder said. “We just have to do our job and do what we are supposed to do to be a better ball club. We feel like we can beat anybody if we can eliminate those things.”

Despite falling out of first place in the region, the Eagles still have a path to a region championship. They trail both Luverne and Highland Home in the standings. Luverne and Highland Home play each other Friday night. If Highland Home were to beat Luverne on Friday, the Eagles’ matchup with the Flying Squadron on October 25 could help determine a region champion depending on various tiebreakers.

“We have to have things happen,” Snyder said. “A lot of that will be Friday night with Highland Home.”

For that to happen, one would think the Eagles would have to win all of their remaining region games. Their next game comes Friday night when they take on a winless Calhoun team. The Tigers are coming off a 50-14 loss to New Brockton and are seeking their first win since October 24, 2014.

“They are struggling, but they have some great athletes and a lot of potential,” Snyder said. “If you give them an opportunity, anything can happen. We need to make sure we play the game of football like we are capable of playing.”

Defending the passing game and trying to keep up with a quick Tiger team will be the key for the Eagles.

“Their quarterback throws the ball good and they’re very athletic,” Snyder said. “They’re going to be fast and they are going to have some athletes.”

The Eagles won last season’s game 34-0.