It's been five seasons since the Murray football team has had a winning season.

And it had been even longer since the Spartans won their season opener — until they beat Ogden 28-10 last month. It was Murray's first win in its opener since 2003.

"It was encouraging," said fourth-year head coach Dan Aragon. "I felt like we had a great chance to win against Hillcrest and start 2-0, but the guys are staying positive and it's been coming together."

Murray lost to Hillcrest in the second week, but got a rivalry win against Taylorsville in Week 3, giving the Spartans a 2-1 record, something they haven't since 2006.

Despite having won only four games in Aragon's first three seasons as head coach, the Spartans aren't hanging their heads or giving up anytime soon.

"I feel like we've made progress every year since I've been here," Aragon said. "These guys that are seniors have had four years in the program and have worked really hard to improve strength and speed and agility. They have bought into the program and we expect to continue to do better."

Two of those players who have been in the program and are making an impact this season are senior quarterback Drew Rindlisbacher and junior running back Christian Jensen. The two have combined for 364 yards of rushing and six of the Spartans' seven touchdowns on the season.

The running game may very well be the Spartans' biggest asset. Speed is something Murray has on its side.

"A couple of our region coaches paid us the ultimate compliment," Aragon said. "They said that we were scrappy. We kind of hang our hats on being fast and scrappy. We are not very big and probably never will be, but we usually have some pretty good athletes that have the speed we need."

For the Spartans, though, being scrappy doesn't just mean being small and speedy. It translates into the program's attitude about football.

"Being scrappy means we are not intimidated by teams that are bigger or stronger than us," Aragon said. "These guys on this team will fight to the bitter end every time. The guys care so much and they want to do so well."

That never-give-up attitude will be needed in the coming weeks, as Murray will face undefeated Cottonwood this week and has six other region games coming up.

The Spartans, however, aren't looking further than Friday night and are taking the season one game at a time.

"We just approach games one at a time," Aragon said. "Each game presents unique challenges and we try not to get too far ahead of ourselves." Big Number- 4 Murray's total number of wins in the previous three seasons

Big Player- Christian Jensen has scored four touchdowns in three games this season.

Big Game - Murray at Cottonwood. Friday, 7 p.m..