By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

Here we go.

With the preseason football games in the books, it’s time for the Callaway Cavaliers, LaGrange Grangers and Troup Tigers to begin playing for keeps.

While LaGrange and Callaway will open the regular season this week with road games against Heard County and Opelika, Troup gets things started next week at home against Ridgeland.

In private-school football, the Unity Prep and Lafayette Christian School football teams will continue their seasons this week.

Callaway, LaGrange and Troup each had impressive performances in their preseason games.

Callaway thumped Starr’s Mill 48-7 in a tune-up for Thursday’s season-opener at Opelika.

A year ago at Callaway Stadium, Callaway got a monster day from running back Cartavious “Tank” Bigsby on the way to a 35-21 win over Opelika.

LaGrange overwhelmed Kendrick 34-0, and it will look to carry that momentum into Friday’s opener at Heard County.

It’s the second consecutive season LaGrange and Heard have met in the season’s first game.

Heard County edged LaGrange 10-3, and it went on to win the Class AA state championship.

LaGrange was competitive in nearly every game last season, but it finished 2-8.

Troup, which eased past Northside-Columbus 53-6, is off this week, and it hosts Ridgeland on Aug. 30 in its first regular-season game.

A year ago, Troup went on the road and smashed Ridgeland 32-0.

That was the start of a special season for Troup, which went 12-2 and lost to Blessed Trinity in the state semifinals.

In the Georgia Independent Christian Athletic Association, Lafayette Christian and Unity Prep will both try to bounce back from losses this week.

Lafayette Christian, which lost to Central Fellowship 18-7 last week, visits Holy Ground Baptist Academy on Friday.

Unity Prep, which fell to Creekside Christian Academy 34-0 last week, hosts Griffin Christian on Friday.

Unity Prep plays its home games in Hogansville.

THIS WEEK’S GAMES

THURSDAY

Callaway at Opelika, 8 p.m.

FRIDAY

LaGrange at Heard County, 7:30 p.m.

Griffin Christian at Unity Prep (Hogansville), 7:30 p.m.

Lafayette Christian at Holy Ground Baptist, 7:30 p.m.