The Goshen Eagles are preparing themselves for their season opener Friday night against the Pike County Bulldogs.

Last Friday night the Eagles hosted a jamboree game with McKenzie and won 8-6.

“We feel like we are energetic and ready to go,” said head coach Bart Snyder. “We have had a fair week of practice so far, getting prepared for a physical, extremely athletic Pike County team.”

The Eagles are preparing for a team that has a dangerous offense led by a quarterback who has already begun to turn heads at the next level.

“Coach Holland has those guys looking really good. They had a really good game against Charles Henderson and they have a whole game under the belt,” Snyder said. “We have some work that we still have to do but I think we are getting better.”

Bulldog quarterback Jerrell Lawson is not the only one the Eagles are going to have to spend some extra time controlling this week. Lawson has a plethora of options at receiver who are physical enough to get any ball.

“We have to keep them contained and we have to play our positions,” Snyder said. “We also have to play as we are coached and can’t wait for mistakes to happen. You have to play in your place and stay disciplined enough to stay in your spot long enough.

“They have an extremely good quarterback and their running backs are good also. Their receivers are good and there are a lot of things that we have to do to get better and be able to play with them on Friday night.”

The Eagles have a potent offense as well. Second -year quarterback Kendrez White will be relied on by the entire team to lead by example both on and off the field.

“He feels more confident in himself this year,” Snyder said. “I had a lineman drive with me to the junior varsity game and he said ‘Coach, I think Kendrez has been playing better this year.’ When you have never played the position before your going to have a lot of jitters. He has matured a lot over this last year and has gotten more confident. We think he is going to do a good job for us tomorrow night and I think his leadership will be big.”

White will not be able to get things done by himself against a big physical defense. Snyder will make sure all his players are where they need to be, scheme-wise on the offensive side of the ball.

“We just have to do our job and get ready to play a very good team,” Snyder said.

“We hope that we will be able to match up with them and be able to get into the end zone against them.”

Knowing that they would have to have a good week of practice Snyder and his coaching staff has made the “game week” practices as passionate as possible and is making sure everyone is working hard.

“Monday’s practice was really good, but Tuesday’s practice wasn’t good,” Snyder said. “Today (Wednesday) we have a little more pep and we feel like we will be ok.”

The Eagles and Bulldogs will officially begin the season Friday night at 7 p.m. at Bulldog Stadium in Brundidge.

Coach Snyder believes they will have to execute really well and play assignment football to come out on top Friday night.