Evan Oscherwitz is a student journalist at the Walter Cronkite school at Arizona State University assigned to cover the Bourgade Catholic football team.

The Bourgade Catholic Golden Eagles are hoping that the second game of the 2019 football season goes much better than the first.

After a disappointing 23-3 home loss to the Coolidge Bears, Bourgade Catholic (0-1) will try for its first win of the season against the Cortez Colts (0-1).

“That loss two weeks ago really put a bad taste in all of our mouths, so we’re anxious to get back on the field and really get back to what we do,” Golden Eagles head coach Marcel Lopez said.

Last year’s meeting between the two teams resulted in a decisive 56-7 win for Bourgade Catholic.

“After the loss to Coolidge it sparked us a lot,” senior Mason McDowell said. “When we came into Cortez, we just had a lot of faith in every single player that we had, and that’s what mainly drove us to get that win."

The Golden Eagles hope that this year’s meeting with Cortez will provide a similar boost.

“Definitely, it could spark something big,” junior Ismael Alvizo said.

In order to ignite that spark, Bourgade Catholic will need solid play on special teams, which was a point of emphasis during practice.

“It’s a third of the game, so you can’t take it lightly,” McDowell said. “If you do, you’ll get bagged on and that’s not something we want to have happen."

Despite their past success against Cortez, coach Lopez made it clear that the Golden Eagles would treat the matchup like an ordinary regular season contest.

“We know that it’s a different team,” said Lopez. “They play aggressive and run the ball really well. ... We’re going to come out and just try to execute and do what we’ve been working on."

Coach Lopez indicated that he would lean towards a balanced offensive attack in the early going against Cortez, a tactic that paid dividends for the Golden Eagles in last year’s clash.

“We throw the ball and on offense we really want to move the ball and be diverse in what we do,” he said.

Any such attack will rely heavily on the arm of senior signal caller Louie Lopez, who threw for 2,147 yards and 22 touchdowns last season.

“He’s a special kid,” coach Lopez said. “He’s worked really hard at his craft.”

Despite the quarterback’s impressive totals from 2018, coach Lopez affirmed that he expects the veteran passer to improve on those numbers this year.

“He’s a three-year starter, so we have very high expectations for him,” the Golden Eagles coach said. “He’s a leader on this team, and we expect him to really light it up this week.”

On defense, the Bourgade Catholic coach hinted at a slightly less nuanced strategy. “We just want to get after it,” he said.

With both programs hungry for their first win of the season, Friday night’s game is sure to be an intense clash.