By Ross Johnson

Sports Writer

The long trip to Stephens County should be an exciting one for the LaGrange High football team.

The Grangers (1-1) will travel near the South Carolina border Friday to face the Indians (1-1) and their undoubtedly rowdy home crowd in a stadium nicknamed “The Reservation.”

According to head coach Steve Pardue, it’ll be a great experience for the players.

“It’ll be a neat experience for our kids,” Pardue said. “Their community is really big into it. It’s their first home game. It’s one of those places kind of like here - where Friday nights are still a big deal. We’re looking forward to that.”

The Grangers defeated Stephens 30-6 last season at Callaway Stadium, but Pardue is anticipating a much closer game Friday, partly due to the hostile road environment.

He thinks highly of Stephens coach Travis Noland, and said last year’s game was closer than the final score indicated.

“That game was a lot closer than the score,” Pardue said. “We made some big plays on them in the first half and we played well defensively.”

LaGrange’s defense will have to bring another solid performance to the table in Friday’s game, as the Indians return senior quarterback Dacen Cash, who threw nine touchdowns and ran for four more in 2008.

Cash will be the Indians’ key to victory.

“(Cash) is a real operator at quarterback,” Pardue said. “Everything goes through him.”

While Cash will be a threat, the Indians’ offense is very “multi-dimensional,” and will give the Grangers’ young defense plenty of different looks.

The Indians’ offense hasn’t exactly been lighting up the scoreboard, however.

In last week’s win over Seneca (S.C.), the Indians won 17-0, but they were beaten 38-7 by Flowery Branch in the opener.

Regardless, Pardue is expecting a good test for his defense.

“They’re very versatile. They’ve got a lot of counter games where they run the football, and they pass off that a lot too,” Pardue said. “Just like us, I’m sure they’ve got some wrinkles they haven’t shown yet, so we’ve got to prepare for everything.”

The Granger offense looked vastly improved from Week 1 to Week 2, with quarterback Jamius Gunsby scoring four touchdowns in last week’s blowout win.

The attack will be facing a similar defense Friday night, as Pardue compared the Indians’ unit to his own.

“They’re a lot like us. They’re small, but they play hard,” Pardue said. “I remember last year they had a tremendous effort level. That’s the sign of a really good coach.”

The flu bug continues to plague the Grangers’ preparation.

Last week, up to 10 players missed practice time, although most of the effected players felt well enough to play in the 34-7 win over Heard County.

It’s the same story this week, with up to 12 players having missed practices Monday and Tuesday.

“Most of them are back, but they missed practice time,” Pardue said. “They’ll miss some consistency when that happens. Hopefully, this thing will run its course, and we’ll be done with it and get back to practicing everybody every day.”