It’s game day for county rivals
Published 12:00 am Friday, August 28, 2015
LAGRANGE – The Troup Tigers have what LaGrange wants.
A year ago, Troup beat LaGrange and Callaway to capture the county championship.
Today, LaGrange will look to duplicate what Troup did a year ago.
After last week’s 45-20 win over Callaway in the season opener, LaGrange will be back at Callaway Stadium today to take on the rival Tigers.
This will be the season opener for Troup, which is making its regular-season debut under head coach Tanner Glisson.
A year ago, it was all Troup.
Troup charged to a 36-0 lead at the half, and it went on to claim a 36-14 victory to beat LaGrange for the second straight year.
A few weeks later, Troup sewed up the county championship by rallying in the fourth quarter to beat Callaway 37-27.
In 2014, LaGrange came into the Troup game after losing a 20-14 heartbreaker to Callaway in overtime.
This year, LaGrange comes into the game with all sorts of momentum after the lop-sided victory over Callaway.
LaGrange scored 30 consecutive points to build a 32-point lead late in the third quarter.
Dialleo Burks, who is in his second season as LaGrange’s head coach, expects a tremendous effort from Troup tonight.
“Because of who you’re playing, the level of play automatically elevates,” Burks said. “It’s just who can hold on the longest. That’s all it is. They will come out jacked up. I don’t care if they’ve got 13 players, it’s still going to be a talented team. They’re not going to give it to us. We’ve got to go out and win. That’s the mindset of our guys, and everyone associated with the program. We’ve got to go out and take it.”
Troup has played two preseason games, and it did a lot of good things in last week’s 14-14 tie against Upson-Lee.
Glisson said slowing down LaGrange’s explosive offense will be a challenge.
“Nobody has stopped them,” Glisson said. “Nobody has even slowed then down. So that’s a big concern. And they run around defensively the way we want to run around. They get to the ball. You can put in film on LaGrange last year and put film on them this year, and you can see they’re in Year 2 (under a new head coach).”
Reach Kevin Eckleberry at (706) 884-7311 or on Twitter @lagrangesports