LAGRANGE – The road to the state playoffs begins this week for the LaGrange Grangers and Troup Tigers.

LaGrange and Troup, who were both off last week, will return to the field on Friday night for the start of Region 5-AAAA competition.

LaGrange will be on the road against Central-Carroll, and Troup will host Chapel Hill.

Also on Friday, Callaway will complete its non-region schedule with a game at Harris County, and Lafayette Christian School will be at home against Ballard Christian.

Troup and LaGrange are two of the seven teams in Region 5-AAAA, and four of those teams will qualify for the state playoffs.

The Grangers and Tigers will look to get a leg-up in the chase for the playoffs this week.

It has been a turnaround season for Troup (3-1), and it will look to keep it going with a home win over Chapel Hill.

Troup’s opponent will be Chapel Hill, which improved to 2-1-1 with a 19-16 win over Whitewater last week.

The LaGrange and Central-Carroll game will feature two teams that struggled in non-region play.

LaGrange is 1-3, and it is coming off back-to-back shutout losses to Griffin and Eest Coweta.

Central-Carroll (0-4), which lost to Heard County 28-7 last week, is winless, and it is has been outscored 114-27 in its four games.

The Callaway and Harris County game pits two teams against each other that are a combined 7-1.

Callaway improved to 4-0 with last week’s 34-7 win over Upson-Lee, and Harris County is 3-1 following a 35-7 victory over Perry.

Callaway is off next week, and it begins its Region 5-AA schedule on Oct. 7 at Lamar County.

Lafayette Christian, which fell to 1-3 with last week’s 43-23 loss to CrossPointe Christian, will play its third home game on Friday against Ballard Christian.

Reach Kevin Eckleberry at (706) 884-7311 or on Twitter @lagrangesports