Following a tough preseason loss to Slocomb, the Goshen Eagles are getting ready to hit the road for their season opener against Abbeville.

Even though Goshen lost to Slocomb 15-14, head coach Bart Snyder said his team learned a lot from the preseason game.

“We got an opportunity to play a lot of people at different positions,’ Snyder said. “It gave us an opportunity to mix our players up and see where we can use them. We also saw that we need to pick it up conditioning wise, which we’ve been doing.”

Snyder also said that the Eagles need to cut down on defensive mistakes and penalties on both sides of the ball in order to be successful.

“Defensively, we made a couple of simple mistakes that hurt us,” Snyder said. “We also had some penalties on offense in that game that wound up hurting us and we had a couple of touchdowns called back. We feel like if we hadn’t had those penalties, we would have been in real good shape.”

Despite the tough loss, Snyder was encouraged by at least one aspect of his team’s performance.

“Offensively, we look pretty good, especially running the football,” Snyder said. “But, there are some areas for improvement.”

The game against Slocomb also gave Snyder an opportunity to evaluate his team in live play, something that will help the coaching staff to figure out how the Eagles match up against Abbeville.

Snyder said the main thing that concerns him about Abbeville is its athleticism.

“Abbeville is extremely athletic,” Snyder said. “They’ve got a great group of receivers, so they look to throw the ball a lot. They’ve got a real good quarterback that is very athletic, and they’re also pretty big.”

However, there are areas that Snyder feels his team can have success in Friday night.

“We feel like if we can get stronger on the defensive line, we’ll have a chance to make some big plays Friday,” Snyder said. “We also need to get stronger at defensive back because they’re going to have some tall receivers and they’re going to throw the ball a lot against us.”

For Goshen, there will be few changes in the offensive game plan.

Snyder said execution will be the key to victory against Abbeville.

“We feel like if we do the things we need to do, we have a chance to be successful,” Snyder said. “Offensively, if we can just keep executing and get a little bit better at carrying out our fakes, we should be ok.”

Goshen will take on Abbeville in Abbeville Friday night at 7 p.m.