By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

If a play here or there had gone differently, Harris County would be 3-0.

Instead, Harris County has come out on the short end of three hard-fought and down-to-the-wire games.

Harris County (0-3) has lost those games by a combined 12 points, and that includes last week’s 33-28 loss to Upson-Lee.

Harris County opened with a 20-16 loss to Carver-Columbus, and it fell to Westside-Macon 27-24 in overtime.

Harris County will try to reverse its losing ways when it hosts Troup on Friday, with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m.

“They’ve played some good competition,” Troup head coach Tanner Glisson said. “They played Westside, who is pretty good. They played Upson-Lee, and Carver. And they’ve had a chance to win all of them. They were on Upson-Lee’s 5-yard-line with a minute left and couldn’t score.”

One of the challenges for Troup will be dealing with senior running back Cal’Von Harris, who ran for more than 1,600 yards with 16 touchdowns a year ago.

In three games this season, Harris has run for 255 yards on 51 carries with three touchdowns.

It will be the first of two high-quality running backs Troup faces.

Next week, Troup’s defense will be tested against Callaway running back Cartavious Bigsby, who had 249 yards in the opener against Opelika.

“What you worry about is the running back, Cal’Von Harris,” Glisson said. “He’s going to be as good of a running back as we’re going to see, up until this point. We’ll probably be seeing the same thing about Bigsby next week. So we’ll get challenged a little bit on defense.”

Troup is 2-0 after a pair of dominant performances.

In its season opener, Troup overwhelmed Ridgeland 32-0, and it thumped Columbus 47-14 last week.

In the Columbus game, Troup was ahead 40-0 at the half, and Glisson substituted freely in the second half.

Junior quarterback Kobe Hudson continued to shine.

Hudson threw touchdown passes of 12 yards to Jamari Thrash and 60 yards to Tyree Carlisle, and he had scoring runs of one and 34 yards.

Hudson threw for 196 yards and ran for 46 yards, all in the first half.

Trey Williams added a touchdown run in the first half.

In the second half, Nick Schweizer threw a scoring pass to Mark-Anthony Dixon in the closing moments.

Troup’s defense also scored, with Alonzo Ogletree returning an interception for a touchdown.

Troup’s veteran offensive line continued to excel, with Colby Harry stepping in at center in place of the injured Will Cooley.

Cooley, a sophomore, earned the starting job at center, but he suffered an injury during practice last week.

“He won a starting job over a bunch of seniors, and then gets hurt in practice,” Glisson said. “But we’ll get him back before too long, and pick up the pieces while he’s gone.”

It helps that Troup has a bunch of linemen who know what Friday-night football is all about.

Among those players are Harry, Gabe Hubbard, Hunter Bass, Michael Irvin, Jay Brodie Messer and Riley Bowles.

“We’ve got a good group of seniors up there,” Glisson said. “We’ve got about seven guys that can roll in. They all have played.”

After next week’s showdown with Callaway, Troup will begin its Region 5-AAAA schedule against Chapel Hill on Sept. 21.

Troup’s final six regular-season games will be against region opponents, and it will be a grind.

It’s a deep region that includes some of the state’s elite teams, including Cartersville, which won state titles in 2015 and 2016.

“We’ve got a pretty decent football team,” Glisson said. “We’ve just got to keep getting better as some things we’ve got to work on. For the most part, they’re checking all the boxes.”

With a big-play offense, and a stingy defense, Troup figures to be one of the region’s teams to beat.

“We’ve got a pretty decent football team,” Glisson said. “We’ve just got to keep getting better as some things we’ve got to work on. For the most part, they’re checking all the boxes.”

TROUP VS. HARRIS COUNTY

WHEN: Friday, 7:30 p.m.

WHERE: Harris County

RECORDS: Troup (2-0); Harris County (0-3)