The Porters Chapel Eagles have been taking it on the chin week after week, and with two games left in the season they’ve withstood the boxing match with the schedule.

Despite injuries, PCA has been fortunate enough to have young players step up and fill the voids. They’re going to need it as they match up against a bigger and stronger Benton Academy team Friday.

Eagles coach Wayne Lynch knows it will be a tough game, but he’ll be looking to see how much effort his players give.

“I just want to see us not quit. I want to see us put into action some of the things we’ve been working on and learning in practice. Just trying to execute and making sure we are getting better in some phases,” Lynch said.

The one thing Lynch stresses is to go into each game and give it everything they have.

“Although we’re younger and smaller than most teams we’ve played we still have to compete, we still have to give everything we have and leave everything on the field and the scoreboard will just have to speak for itself,” Lynch said.

Since the beginning of the season, Lynch wanted to run an efficient offense, which the players have gotten better at. At times his players run the ball well, other times not.

“Every game we had two or three drives where we executed our plays and moved the ball down the field, we just haven’t been able to sustain that through an entire game or through an entire drive,” Lynch said.

However, the team has gotten better at blocking. The offensive line has done a better job with pass blocking, figuring out their assignments and picking up blitzers.

Lynch sees the success of the offensive line carrying over against Benton (4-4). The players have never stopped working hard despite it being difficult to find things to motivate them as the losses pile up.

Aside from their 1-7 record, the frustrating thing about the Eagles’ season is the inability to stay in games. They’ve only scored once in the first half all season.

“We just haven’t been able to sustain anything, we haven’t been able to stop anybody to give ourselves a chance in the second half,” Lynch said. “If we were in competitive games and losing, that’s one thing but if you’re ever not really in the game it’s a completely different thing.”

The Eagles can hang their hat on the talented youth of the program. There are players who haven’t hit their growth spurt and if Lynch can get them in the gym and give them some experience they’ll be in much better shape in a couple of years.

“As long as the people we have now stay here and we continue to build on what we have going, these guys are going to have a lot of game time under their wings. They’ll already know the system and will be able to execute it at a high level,” Lynch said.

Porters Chapel at Benton Academy

Friday, 7 p.m.

Radio: 104.5 FM

Online: For live scoring updates on Friday, visit Facebook.com/thevicksburgpost or Twitter.com/vicksburg post