Teams set for Week 2 tests

Published 2:38 pm Monday, August 21, 2017

By Kevin Eckleberry

kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com

LAGRANGE – It’ll be morning football for the Troup Tigers.

Troup will be at Kinnett Stadium in Columbus on Saturday for its second game of the season, and it’ll be an early kickoff.

Troup and Kendrick will meet at 11 a.m. on Saturday, and it will be the first of a handful of games at the stadium that day.

Also this week, LaGrange will be at Callaway Stadium against Villa Rica on Friday as it looks for its first win of the season.

Lafayette Christian will make its home debut on Friday against New Creation Christian Academy.

The Callaway Cavaliers, who opened their season with a win over LaGrange last week, are off this week, and they’ll host Handley (Ala.) on Sept. 1.

Troup opened with a dramatic 31-28 victory over Hardaway last week after getting a late touchdown pass from Montez Crowe to Jamari Thrash.

Kendrick fell to Northside-Columbus 40-8 in its season opener.

A year ago, Troup followed up a close loss to Hardaway with a 38-12 victory over Kendrick, and that was the start of an eight-game winning streak.

LaGrange will look for its first win of the season when it hosts Villa Rica.

LaGrange opened with a 26-0 loss to Callaway last week, while Villa Rica beat Central-Carroll 41-13.

A year ago, LaGrange beat Villa Rica 28-7.

“Our heads are up,” LaGrange head coach Dialleo Burks said Friday night. “Even though we lost, our guys are encouraging each other for the next one. We didn’t have that last year. We saw heads down. You saw guys wanting to go their own way. That’s a sign of a good team. We’ll get it. We’re young but we’ll get it.”

Lafayette Christian opened with a 37-15 loss to Solid Rock, and it will look to even its record with a home win over New Creation this week.

Callaway will be off this week as it prepares for a showdown with Handley, which won a state title a year ago.

Callaway won 42-28 at Handley in 2016 on the way to a 13-1 season.

THIS WEEK’S GAMES

FRIDAY

Villa Rica at LaGrange, 7:30 p.m.

New Creation at Lafayette Christian, 7:30 p.m.

SATURDAY

Troup at Kendrick, 11 a.m. (Kinnett Stadium)