By Ross Johnson

Sports Writer

The Troup boys’ soccer team got the warm-up game it needed Friday at Callaway Stadium.

The Tigers, limited this past week because of bad weather, hit the turf against Smiths Station and came away with a 3-1 non-region win.

The win further prepares Troup for next Friday’s showdown with cross-town rival LaGrange, which defeated Columbus 3-1 on Wednesday to improve to 3-0 in Region 2-AAA.

“I think Smiths Station is a team that is physically like LaGrange,” said Tigers head coach Glenn Quiggle, who scouted Wednesday’s LaGrange-Columbus match-up. “(Smith Station) has good size and played very well, and that’s what we’re expecting from LaGrange.”

While the Grangers are the only unbeaten team in the region standings, the Tigers are 3-2 in region play and have the potential to knock off their rivals.

Last season, Troup defeated LaGrange for the first time in school history, but Quiggle won’t be looking to that game for reference.

“That was last year, and this is this year,” Quiggle said. “(LaGrange) is physical and is the class of the region right now.”

The win over Smiths Station started with a goal from Nathan Stein 17 minutes into the first half, and Sean Malloy added another 10 minutes later for a 2-0 halftime lead.

Malloy scored again on a penalty kick with 15 minutes remaining, but the shutout was squashed when a Smiths Station forward knocked in a goal with less than two minutes left.

Quiggle said his team’s defense—namely goal keeper Josh Murphy - played “very well.”

“We were challenged physically from the start,” Quiggle said. “Because we haven’t played in a while, it took us a bit to get going. Our field game got better as the game went on, and I was happy to see that.”

The Tigers have just two games remaining, unless some match-ups that were postponed get rescheduled on a later date.

The only scheduled date other than next week’s LaGrange game is the season-finale April 14 against Villa Rica.

For now, Troup has an entire week to focus on beating the Grangers.

“LaGrange is a team that works really hard,” Quiggle said. “To beat them, we’re going to have to work even harder, and we’ll work on that this week in practice.”

Troup has made the state playoffs two straight years, and has already locked up another spot, although its seeding is yet to be determined.

Four spots are available for Region 2-AAA, and LaGrange, Columbus, Northside and Troup have all won enough games to make it in.

With a win over LaGrange, the Tigers could capture a No. 3 seed if Northside - one of the Tigers’ two losses in region play - loses another game.

Regardless of the seeding, Quiggle is proud to have Troup soccer on the map and challenging for region titles.

“It used to be, people would make jokes about Troup soccer,” Quiggle said.