Eagles whomp Wildcats

Goshen wins first home playoff game since 2001

Clif Lusk

Published Saturday, November 7, 2009

The scoring started early and was often at the Eagles’s Nest Friday where the Goshen Eagles defeated a quick Fultondale Wildcat team 50-32 in round one of the Class 2A playoffs.

Just a minute-and-a-half after Goshen’s opening kick, a Wildcat fumble set the Eagles for a 21-yard Reginald Foster run to the 8 yard-line. Two plays later, Foster, a sophomore running back, found the end zone on a 6-yard carry.

With just 3:41 left in the quarter, sophomore quarterback Jerome Lawrence put six on the board on a 1-yard keeper set up by a 21-yard run by Foster and an 8-yard carry by junior running back Marcus Jackson.

The pace was set for the rest of the game.

“This was a great effort and a great ballgame,” said head coach Bart Snyder. “We knew going in that Fultondale was good and that we had to bring our best – we had to work hard and hit harder.”

Hitting harder is exactly what the Eagles did, too. And not quitting.

“This was a team effort. I can’t say enough about Reginald Foster, and Jackson delivered an unbelievable run when we needed it the most,” he said.

That run came just under over four minutes into the fourth quarter with the Eagles leading 37-32 – the closest the Wildcats came except when they carried a two-point lead with 2:35 remaining in the half.

With the Eagles barely across mid field in Wildcat territory, a Foster first down to the Wildcat 39, set the stage for Jackson to post six points on a 39-yard carry. Hit behind the line of scrimmage, Jackson bounced off the Wildcat defender only to run into the rest of the Fultondale defensive squad.

With no whistle to stop play, Jackson kept churning and managed to pop out of the mass for the end zone. The two-point conversion failed put gave Goshen an 11-point lead.

That wouldn’t end the Wildcat threat, however. Fultondale’s freshman running back Adarius Stewart, taking snaps from center, would carry the ball three more times before senior Carceial Mixon would get hammered by Jackson on the one-yard line to end the scoring threat.

A pair of first downs by Reginald Foster gave the Eagles some breathing room before Foster scored on an 89-yard sprint to put the game’s final points on the board, his fourth touchdown for the night.

Synder found it hard to talk to anyone post-game for very long. He was too busy being hugged and having his hand shaken.

“This whole season was a team effort -- just like tonight’s win. Nobody expected us to get this far.”

“All season long we’ve been 47 players,” Snyder said. “We’re still alive and we are a team. We are Goshen.”

The Eagles will face Pickens County next week on the road.

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