The Eagles had chances against host Fishers on Friday in their regular season finale.

Zionsville forced five turnovers in the game, and led 10-0 early in the second quarter but couldn’t sustain the momentum in a 28-18 loss.

“We did some good things, especially early,” Zionsville head coach Scott Turnquist said. “Defensively we forced five turnovers, and we really attacked the ball, we just couldn’t convert all those into points and have them really make an impact.”

All five of the Tigers turnovers came in the first half.

Fishers fumbled on the Eagles’ 2-yard line on their opening drive of the game, and Zionsville got big plays on a 50-yard run from Spencer Choi and a 20-yard pass from Eli Showalter to Micah Morris to set-up a 7-yard touchdown pass from Showalter to Theo Schott.

On the ensuing drive, Zionsville’s Brady Jung picked off a pass, and after the Eagles were forced to punt, the Tigers muffed it and the Eagles recovered.

That led to a 42-yard Sam Black field goal and a 10-0 Zionsville lead. 

“Our defense did a great job,” Turnquist said. “Our defensive coordinator Joel Janak does a great job and he makes it a big point of emphasis to take the ball away. That is really a main focus for us. Our coaches did a great job scheming up our defense and the players did a good job executing.”

Fishers cut the lead to 10-7 and after an Eagle turnover, the Zionsville defense got the ball right back, with Nate Foster recovering a fumble on the Fishers 38.

But this time the Eagles couldn’t capitalize, and were forced to punt. Fishers scored on the ensuing drive to make it 14-10 heading into the half.

The Tigers added two more touchdowns in the third quarter to give them 28 unanswered points.

Zionsville got a late touchdown from Choi for the final margin.

Choi ran for 78 yards in the game, but as a team the Eagles rushed for just 41 yards as a team.

Brody Kledzik was 9 of 14 for 80 yards and Showalter was 6 of 10 for 64 yards.

“We just weren’t executing the way we wanted and left ourselves in a lot of long yardage situations,” Turnquist said. “You can’t do that against the defenses we come up against. We have to do a better just of executing on early downs.”

The Eagles finished the regular season 3-6. 

They will now have two weeks to prepare for a road trip to Westfield.

“The two weeks is going to be critical for us,” Turnquist said. “The time will benefit some of our guys getting right, and they will put in the work to make sure they are ready and follow the protocols they have to. Westfield is going to be a tough opponent, we can take some of the things we saw from the first meeting, and put together a good game plan in a couple of weeks.”

Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.