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By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

Riding a winning streak for the first time since 2015, the LaGrange Grangers will look to keep it rolling this week.

LaGrange, after rallying from 10 points behind in the fourth quarter to beat Columbus 39-32, will be on the road once again this week to play the Kendrick Cherokees.

Before last week, LaGrange (2-1 overall) hadn’t won two straight games since it beat Shaw and Harris County late in the 2015 season.

LaGrange also had lost 23 consecutive region games, and it reversed that trend with the victory over Columbus in the Region 2-AAAA opener for both teams.

LaGrange’s opponent this week is a Kendrick team that has struggled so far.

Kendrick is 0-2 this season, and it has been outscored by a combined score of 100-0 in losses to Washington-Atlanta and Carver.

Since the start of the 2016 season, Kendrick has only won three games, and it hasn’t won more than one game in a season since 2015 when it went 3-7.

For a LaGrange team that won a combined six games in the previous four seasons combined, finding a way to prevail in a game where things appeared to be going south was a big step.

“The mentality is good with the guys,” said LaGrange head coach Matt Napier. “Their willingness to continue to fight, even when things don’t necessarily go perfect, or go the exact what that you plan, that’s an intangible that you want any team to have. That’s why you play the sport, why you coach the game. You want the kids to continue to learn the lessons that football provides, and we definitely were learning a lot of lessons Friday night. We had a lot of things we had to overcome to be successful and win, and we did that.”

Also this week, the Troup Tigers (0-3) will try to secure their first win of the season when they host Spencer (0-4), which is also winless.

Troup, after opening with losses to Harris County and Callaway, fell to Hardaway 28-26 in its Region 2-AAAA opener last week.

Trailing 28-13 with less than two minutes remaining, Troup staged a dramatic late-game comeback, scoring a touchdown while recovering two onside kicks.

After the second of those two onside kicks, the Tigers had possession with a chance to pull off what would have been a miraculous win, but their hopes ended when a fourth-down play failed.

While it hasn’t been the start to the season Troup was hoping for, it has plenty of time to right the ship with seven region games remaining, beginning with this week’s game against a struggling Spencer squad.

Spencer, which began its region schedule with an 18-8 loss to Jordan last week, has been outscored 167-22.

“I think you look at it as, what’s the goal next week? And the goal next week is we need to win a football game,” Troup head coach Tanner Glisson said following the loss to Hardaway. “We’ve got to out there and win a game, and get better. I don’t think we’re a bad football team. We’ve played three playoff teams, and we’ve got a 14-year-old quarterback (Taeo Todd), and he’s battling and playing hard.”

The Callaway Cavaliers, meanwhile, will take this week off after playing three straight Friday nights.

It has been an impressive start to the season for Callaway (3-0), which has beaten three teams in higher classifications.

After beating Troup and Hardaway at Callaway Stadium, Callaway played its first road game last week and blanked Douglass-Atlanta 35-0.

Callaway will play at Thomas County-Central next week, and it will be the first time those two teams have ever played.

Following another off week, Callaway begins its Region 5-AA schedule on Oct. 23 at Haralson County.

Also this week, the Lafayette Christian School Cougars will look to bounce back from their first loss of the season when they travel to Milner to play Rock Springs Christian Academy.

Lafayette Christian (2-1) was unable to get anything going in last week’s 41-7 loss to Southwest Georgia Academy.

THIS WEEK’S GAMES

FRIDAY

Spencer at Troup, 7:30 p.m.

LaGrange at Kendrick (Memorial Stadium), 7:30 p.m.

Lafayette Christian School at Rock Springs Christian Academy, 7:30 p.m.