By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

It’s time for the showdown.

The Troup Tigers and LaGrange Grangers will resume their long-standing rivalry on Friday night when they share the field at Callaway Stadium for a Region 5-AAAA game.

While Troup was off last week, LaGrange is coming off a 45-7 road loss to the Cartersville Purple Hurricanes on Friday.

Troup hopes the week off won’t slow its momentum.

Troup (6-0 overall) improved to 2-0 in Region 5-AAAA with a 35-21 road win over Sandy Creek on Sept. 28.

Following this week’s games, Troup has a home test against Cedartown on Oct. 19, and that’ll be a critical game.

Troup nearly lost at home to Cedartown in 2016, and it did lose last year’s game on the road.

Troup finishes the regular season with road games against Central-Carroll and Cartersville.

While there’ll be plenty of passion surrounding this week’s games because it’s a local rivalry, Troup head coach Tanner Glisson said “it’s just the next game on the schedule for us.”

“You look at what Cedartown has been able to do to us the last couple of years,” Glisson said. “Two years ago, they could have easily beaten us on that last play. We go up there last year and lost to them. So regardless of what happens (against LaGrange), we have to be ready for a dogfight. So you can not go put all of your eggs in one basket.”

The season has gone a different way for LaGrange (1-5), which is 0-3 in the region after the loss to Cartersville.

While the results haven’t been there, LaGrange has been competitive in nearly every game.

The one exception was last week’s blowout loss at the hands of a Cartersville team that hasn’t lost in the regular season since 2014.

LaGrange’s first two region losses, to Central-Carroll and Cedartown, were by a combined six points, and it fell to Heard County 10-3.

LaGrange also hung tough against Callaway before losing 14-0.

Against Cartersville, LaGrange trailed 31-0 at the half, and its only points came on a Vondez Taylor interception return for a touchdown in the third quarter.

LaGrange finishes the regular season with four home games.

Following the showdown against Troup, LaGrange hosts Sandy Creek, Chapel Hill and Shaw.

Also this week, the Callaway Cavaliers will host Spencer on Thursday.

It’ll be a short week for Callaway, which beat Lamar County 45-6 on Friday night.

“We play on Thursday, and it’ll be homecoming for us,” Callaway head coach Pete Wiggins said. “They’ve got a good football team. We’ve got to prepare like always. We’ve just got to keep working, doing what we do, and get better each week.”

Callaway will be at Heard County on Oct. 19 for a matchup with Heard County before closing the regular season on Oct. 25 against Jordan at Callaway Stadium.

If Callaway beats Spencer, it can win the region title with a victory over Heard County.

The Cavaliers are attempting to win their seventh region title since 2008 under Wiggins.

In private-school football, Lafayette Christian returns from its off week to host Calvary Christian on Friday, and Unity Preparatory Academy of West Georgia will be in Macon to play Central Fellowship.

THIS WEEK’S GAMES

THURSDAY

Spencer at Callaway, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY

LaGrange at Troup, 7:30 p.m.

Calvary Christian at Lafayette Christian, 7:30 p.m.

Unity Prep at Central Fellowship, 7:30 p.m.