Lindale's Sam Peterson and Kasey Villarreal celebrate a touchdown in the season opener against Kaufman Aug. 27 in Lindale.

LINDALE — When you’re coming off an undefeated district title and the first state championship game appearance in program history, there is definitely going to be a target on your back going into the next season.

The Lindale Eagles were well aware of that and were ready for the challenge.

And along with roster turnover, the Eagles also knew they had a very difficult schedule ahead of them.

Through six games, Lindale is 3-3 with wins over Pine Tree, Mabank and Chapel Hill and the losses coming to Kaufman, Van and Gilmer.

“As far as the record goes, we are not concerned with it,” Lindale head football coach Chris Cochran said. “I think a lot of people do get worked up about all of that. We know the guys that we played. We knew going into it that it was going to be a difficult non-district. But it was a difficult non-district last year.

“I would always go back and kind of sounded like a broken record last year, but our biggest growing moments were the two losses — Gilmer and Midlothian Heritage. We felt the same way this year. We knew it was going to be tough. Obviously you don’t want to lose games, but you can learn so much more from the losses than you can the wins.”

Those losses were to teams that are a combined 16-1 — with Gilmer’s only loss coming to Class 4A Division II No. 1 Carthage, which has won 34 consecutive games. Kaufman is ranked No. 10 in Class 4A Division I. Gilmer and Van are ranked No. 2 and 7 in Class 4A Division II, respectively.

And the wins haven’t been against pushovers. Teams Lindale has defeated are a combined 13-4 with the Eagles of course accounting for three of those tallies. The only loss any have suffered that wasn’t to Lindale was a 17-10 setback by Pine Tree to Marshall.

“We kind of got a realization of how it’s not going to be easy, because we’re going to have a target on our back every game,” senior Colton Widemon said. “We have to go out there with that mindset of being the hunted and not think it’s going to be handed to us.”

Every opponent Lindale has had has been undefeated at the time of the meeting. That will change this Friday as the Eagles travel to take on Henderson (4-1, 1-0). The Lions’ lone loss was a 50-14 decision to Gilmer.

“They’re well-coached,” Cochran said. “You can tell that they’re a ton better. Coach (Othell) Robinson and that staff, I don’t really know them very well, but when you look at the film, you can see those kids are playing extremely hard. They’re good up front, on the offensive and defensive lines. I always look at that first. And of course his sons (quarterback Jacobe and receiver Jamal) are dynamic with the ball in their hands.”

Lindale is coming off a 36-14 win over Class 4A Division I No. 4 Chapel Hill in a game where the Eagles had eight sacks.

“We challenged them all week,” Cochran said. “We just said, you’ve got to disrupt the quarterback, and they did that from the get go.”

Two key contributors in the defensive dominance were Widemon and Christian King. Widemon had two sacks, and King had 3.5 sacks.

“I think up front defensively, we wanted to test the quarterback’s resilience, and we got the job done,” Widemon said.

“I feel like we really came together as a D-line,” King said. “I also have to give a whole lot of props to our defensive secondary. We had guys on hips all night. And if guys are on hips, that gives us more time to get to the quarterback.”

Offensively, the Eagles rushed for 303 yards. Quarterback Sam Peterson had 18 carries for 158 yards and a touchdown, and Patrick Daniels ran for 141 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries.

It’s been a group effort in the ground game for the Eagles after the graduation of four-star running back Jordan Jenkins, who is now at Baylor after rushing for 3,044 yards and 51 touchdowns as a senior and 5,979 rushing yards and 7,554 all-purpose yards and 104 touchdowns for his career.

Kasey Villarreal has rushed for 204 yards and three touchdowns on 53 carries, but has missed the last three games due to injury. Daniels has 99 carries for 466 yards and four touchdowns. Peterson has rushed for 327 yards and two scores on 60 carries. Nashad Lee, Judson Long and Jacob Seekford have also helped with the rushing attack.

“We knew going into it that was going to be a different look,” Cochran said. “It wasn’t going to be one guy carrying it 30 or 35 times. It was going to be a combination of the running backs and Sam and Seekford and Long. We knew it was going to have to be a bunch of people carrying the load, and we’re OK with that. Our running back room has kind of dealt with some adversity with injuries and stuff, but we’ve found a way. Our coaching staff is finding a way to put kids in a position to be successful.

“Also, our offensive line the last two weeks has really grown up. They’re getting better and better by the day, so that’s been fun to watch.”

The offensive line consists of junior Trey Mazratian at center, sophomore Casey Poe at left guard, junior Will Hutchens at left tackle, junior Cory Watts at right guard and junior Ethan Heller at right tackle. Senior Yahir Soto is also in the mix, along with junior Brandon Pettway. Tight ends Cody Swaim and Cason Watts also play a role in the blocking up front.

“That group of about nine guys have done an excellent job, and we’ve leaned on them a lot in the last two weeks,” Cochran said.

“All five O-linemen have done a great job, plus Cody and Kasen stepping up,” Peterson said. “Just them blocking and us being able to run the ball has been big for our offense.”

Peterson has also gotten it done through the air, going 83 of 160 for 1,155 yards with 11 touchdowns and six interceptions. Seekford has 18 catches for 374 yards and three touchdowns. Swaim has 21 catches for 199 yards and three touchdowns, and Alford has 23 grabs for 366 yards and two touchdowns.

“We just have to stay true to ourselves and know that if we stay together, our culture will carry us far,” Peterson said.