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LaGrange opened the entire high school football slate in the state of Georgia on Wednesday but it was not the performance the team was looking for as the Grangers took a tough 18-3 loss to Douglass-Atlanta. 

“I want to give them full credit, they have a veteran group and returned a lot of players from a good team last year,” LaGrange coach Matt Napier said. “They have a lot of guys with high-level talent and they executed better than us tonight.

“Our guys played their hearts out tonight and I could not ask for more,” Napier added. “They continued to give maximum effort all game.”

It was the Grangers that scored the first points of the 2024 Georgia High School football season when Mason Calhoun connected on a 43-yard field goal with 5:23 left to go in the first quarter, but that is as good as it would get for the Grangers. 

After a strong showing in last week’s 27-13 win in a preseason scrimmage versus Harris County, the LaGrange offense fell back down to Earth on Wednesday. The Grangers were outgained 239-89 yards through three quarters and 280-133 at the final whistle.

“They were able to win their one-on-one battles up front,” Napier said. “I have to do a better job of putting these guys in a position to play well.”

The Astros’ defense forced the Grangers into becoming a one-dimensional team. LaGrange ran the ball 31 times to just seven passes through the first three quarters and 42-12 through four quarters,

The defense held strong early, forcing a punt on the first Douglass drive of the game and then forced a three-and-out on the Astros’ second drive of the game thanks to a Noah Outland sack on third down. The ensuing punt gave the Grangers the ball in good field position, but quarterback Dylan Barber, who was making his first regular-season start for the Grangers, threw an interception that the Astros took over at their own 20-yard line.

It was a crucial moment in the game as the Astros hit a 72-yard pass on the first play of the possession to set them up with a goal-to-go situation. Douglass punched it in and got the two-point conversion to take an 8-3 lead. 

A couple of bad special teams plays in the second quarter gave the Astros a short field to work with both times and they made the Grangers pay, scoring a field goal and a touchdown to take an 18-3 lead with 2:25 left to go in the half.

“When you play good teams special teams have to play well and they really struggled tonight,” Napier said.

The Grangers lost any chance to cut into the deficit in the first half when another turnover killed any chance to grab the momentum with under two minutes to go in the half.

The Granger offense started the second half with the ball but could get nothing going, going backward and being forced to punt. 

LaGrange’s offense finally sparked to life on their second drive of the second half, entering the red zone for the first time in the game, but came away with no points when Caydin Thomas fumbled the ball inside the 5-yard line and an Astros’ defender jumped on the ball for a touchback.

The second half was a battle of two elite defenses with neither team giving an inch. LaGrange’s defense kept the team in the game, forcing their first turnover with 8:55 left to go in the game when Drek Williams jumped on a fumble to give LaGrange possession on its own 36-yard line. It would not matter as the LaGrange offense could not figure out how to attack the Douglass defense and came away with no points off the turnover.

“They have a lot of talented playmakers on offense and our defense was able to contain them and didn’t give up a point in the second half,” Napier said. 

Malachi Fannin-Render led the LaGrange offense, taking 19 carries for 55 rushing yards. Barber struggled in his debut, throwing for just 41 yards on 11 attempts.

LaGrange falls to 0-1 to start the season. The Grangers will return to action on Aug. 23 at home versus Early County.