It’s been three years since Calhoun took a trip to play Coosa.

And if it’s all the same to the Jackets, they’d take the same result as the last time they visited the Eagles.

In 2009, Hal Lamb’s Calhoun team visited Coosa in late September and walked away with a 47-16 en route to their ninth straight region title and an appearance in the Class AA State Championship game.

Three years later, the roles are are almost the same as the defending Class AA state champion Jackets go in as heavy favorites against Coosa in their second region game. Still, Lamb said his team knows they can’t take the Eagles lightly.

“Coosa’s not a bad team, and coach (Chad) Perry does a great job there,” said Lamb. “They are very young team and have had some bad breaks against them this year, but they are still a good team.

“We haven’t played them in a while so it’s new for our kids, and they’re excited about the opportunity.”

Coosa (0-4, 0-1) comes into the game off a loss to Pepperell last Saturday in their region opener. The Eagles are similar in style to Dade County but have a more speed according to Lamb.

The Eagles looked to have added a big weapon before the season as former Pepperell standout running back Janier Ferguson transferred in over the summer.

But off the field problems forced Ferguson off the team, and Coosa hasn’t been able to get any consistency going, especially on offense, ever since.

Calhoun (4-0, 1-0) head into Friday riding high after a convincing win on the road at Dade County last week. The Jackets rebounded from a slow first quarter to win 50-13 in Trenton and move to 1-0 in the region.

“We didn’t play as well as we wanted to, but we’ve never played very well up there,” said Lamb. “The second quarter was a lot better than the first, and we were able to get some other kids in the game in the second half.

“It’s always been big for us to get younger kids experience on Friday nights. We went through a tough stretch at the first of the season where we couldn’t do that as much so it was good that they got to play some against Dade County.”

The Jackets are without several contributors at this point in the schedule. Linebacker Chaz Horton and receiver Thomas Haynes have both been lost for the season, and linebacker Justin Harrison has been out since the Dalton game with an injury. Lamb said the team hopes to get Harrison and junior lineman Nathan Walraven, who has been out since the preseason with a stress fracture in his foot, back in a few weeks.

In those players’ abscences, others have stepped up to fill those roles and the other key guys for the Jackets have continued to be leaders.

Lamb said his team has to be focused in several key areas to avoid a letdown against Coosa on Friday.

“We can’t play sloppy and turn the ball over and let them hang around,” said Lamb. “We’ve got to execute in all three phases, especially on defense. We’ve got to contain their speed on the outside and not miss tackles.

“If we take care of what we need to do and go in with the right frame of mind, we should be alright.”

Prediction:

The bottom line is Calhoun is a better team in this matchup in all phases of the game. That doesn’t mean that Coosa isn’t void of any good players, they just simply don’t have as many as Calhoun.

Like Lamb said, if the Jackets take care of business and play like they’re capable of playing, they should have no problem moving to 2-0 in the region headed into next week’s idle week.

Expect another lopsided victory this week.

Score:

Calhoun 49, Coosa 14