By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

Three times this season, the fans will fill up Callaway Stadium to watch a showdown between Troup County teams.

The first of those matchups is this week, with Callaway and LaGrange getting together on Friday night.

Also this week, the Troup Tigers will play their first home game when they take on the Columbus Blue Devils on Thursday.

Lafayette Christian School will host Cherokee Christian on Friday as it looks to improve to 3-0, and Unity Preparatory Academy of West Georgia is off this week.

Callaway and LaGrange are meeting for the seventh time, and both teams have won three times.

LaGrange beat Callaway 49-0 in 2002, and it won 27-6 in 2003.

The two teams didn’t play again until 2014, and it was a thriller, with Callaway prevailing 20-14 in overtime.

LaGrange won 44-20 in 2015, and Callaway has won the past two years by scores of 37-6 and 26-0.

The next county showdown will be on Sept. 14 when Callaway and Troup get together for their first regular-season meeting since 2015, although the teams did play a spring game last year.

On Oct. 12, LaGrange and Troup will resume their rivalry, and it will be a Region 5-AAAA game.

LaGrange didn’t play last week after opening with a 10-3 loss to Heard County on Aug. 17.

Callaway began its season with a 35-14 victory over Opelika last week.

Troup and Columbus will both bring 1-0 records into Thursday’s game.

Troup opened its season with a 32-0 road win over Ridgeland, while Columbus thumped Spencer 42-6 on Aug. 17.

Lafayette Christian will host Georgia Christian in a matchup of a pair of 2-0 teams.

Unity Prep, which lost to Calvary Christian 27-18 last week, is off until Sept. 7 when it hosts the Unbreakable Knights.

THIS WEEK’S GAMES

THURSDAY

Columbus at Troup, 7 p.m.

LaGrange College at Birmingham Southern, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY

LaGrange at Callaway, 7:30 p.m.

Cherokee Christian at Lafayette Christian, 7:30 p.m.