The Eagles took on the Aldine Mustangs at Thorne Stadium on Saturday night kicking off the 2018-2019 football season. The game was scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday night, but rain and lightning pushed the start time back.

By 7:00 p.m.,  the first kick of the season was underway. Eagles quarterback and UTEP commit TJ Goodwin got things rolling with a 45-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Caine Guerrero for the Eagles giving them the early 7-0 advantage over the Mustangs.

With 3:21 still left to go in the first quarter, TJ Goodwin connected again with his receiver. This time, Devon Hayward with the reception, 39 yards all the way to the end zone putting your Eagles on top 14-0.

After one quarter of play, the Eagles defense allowed zero yards to the Mustang offense, while the Eagles offense had 169 total yards of offense.

The Eagles weren’t done in the second quarter. The quarter was dominated by running back Koby Leavatts. Three minutes into the quarter, and the ball was handed to Leavatts at the two yard line. He ran it in and pushed the score even higher to 21-0.

Four minutes later, Leavatts was handed the ball again, this time rushing for a big 29 yards; scoring again making it 28-0. After a great start to the quarter, Semaj Trahan ran 17 yards for another touchdown for the Eagles to cap off the 2nd quarter.

At halftime, the score was 35-0 with a dominant 260 total yards of offense, and the Eagles defense held back the Aldine Mustangs to -6 yards on 13 plays.

At halftime, Mother Nature had returned and put the game on pause again for the second time due to lightning in the area.

After the halftime delay, the Eagles still came out with intensity in the third quarter. The defense was still putting on a clinic against the Mustangs while on the offensive side new QB Brandon Collins ran the ball in for another touchdown putting the Eagles up an impressive 42-0.

The Eagles surrendered 20 points in the fourth and final quarter bringing the final score to 42-20 in the season opener at Thorne Stadium. The Eagles had 337 total yards on offense and the defense held the Aldine passing offense to just 110 yards passing.

Eagles QB TJ Goodwin was satisfied with the start that he and his offense had.

“We were practicing hard before the game and we’ve been put in that situation several times, and so it just felt like another day at practice,” Goodwin said. “I think we can be one of the best offenses in the district just by how many weapons we have and the way we are able to get the ball around the field.”

After the game, head coach Christopher Brister thought his team had a fantastic start to the season.

“We’ve preached that we’ve wanted to start games fast, and we’ve set goals about scoring on the first drive of the game and getting off the field on defense, and so we scored 35 points in the first half and we had seven three-and-outs on defense,” Coach Brister said. “That was the biggest takeaway is that we had an opportunity to get on the scoreboard early and keep them out the endzone.”

Your Eagles next game is set for Saturday, September 8, at 6:00 p.m. at Pridgeon Stadium vs. Alief Hastings.

“We have a standard way of doing things. The coaches worked all weekend on Hastings. We had a good practice even though it was in the gym due to weather, but we are just preparing. They are a very good football team, ranked highly, they have a lot of seniors returning and so we think it’s going to be a good game.”  Coach Brister said. “We prepare like we always prepare and we’re going to try to leave no stone unturned as to how we can win a football game.”