By Kevin Eckleberry

kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com

LAGRANGE – The Gardner Newman Mustangs will try to make it two in a row today.

Gardner Newman’s football team opened the season with a 14-8 victory over Russell County last week, and it will be on the road against South Girard in Phenix City today.

In last week’s game, Gardner Newman coach Scooter Weathers was happy with the effort.

“The attitude and effort was great by the guys,” Weathers said. “It was a total team effort. We have a few things to clean up that we’ll start fixing.”

Valshawn Patterson had a pair of rushing touchdowns for the Mustangs, and Weathers said Eric Tumlin “had a great game at quarterback.”

“He played and managed the game great,” Weathers added. “Defense played well behind a stingy defense.”

Tristan Smith sealed the victory with an interception late in the game, and the offense was able to run out the clock.

Weathers said Ka’Various Perry, Antonio Moore, Tron Brown, Asa Leath and Austin Crow each excelled on defense.

It was Weathers’ first game as Gardner Newman’s head coach, and he was grateful for the work done by his assistant coaches Aaron Woody, Reid Barron, Zachery Barron, Alfonso Sample and Qua Huzzie.

Weathers also offered his thanks to “the administration for their support.”

Also today, there’ll be a local showdown between Long Cane and Callaway Middle School.

It will be the first meeting between those two teams since they played for the league championship a year ago.

Long Cane trailed at the half before rallying for a 36-26 victory.

Long Cane’s seventh-grade and eighth-grade teams opened their seasons with losses at Opelika on Aug. 31.

Callaway is only fielding an eighth-grade team, and it is 2-0 after beating Heard County and Valley.