Preview Week 1

Football season is officially back as of this week.

Across the state, middle school, junior varsity and varsity teams are lacing up and hitting the field.

Atlanta Head Coach Tyler Morton is in year three at the helm of the Rabbit Express and both Queen City and Linden-Kildare are under new Athletic Directors.

Head Coach David Wilbanks (QC) and Head Coach Jason Ferguson (L-K) have been preparing their teams with new playbooks and excitement surrounding the new season for both squads is high.

Our coverage football teams have exciting matchups in week one, and I believe it’s going to be a great way to kick off the new season.

All games begin this Friday night, Aug. 30.

Atlanta vs. Pleasant Grove

The Rabbits and Hawks have not played since the 2019 season.

Atlanta owns a 16-9 series lead against Pleasant Grove but hasn’t beaten the Hawks in the past three tries.

Looking at Pleasant Grove’s record since 1990, the Hawks only had 11 winning seasons in 24 years and some of those just barely.

In 2014 Josh Gibson took over and after three subpar seasons the Hawks won two state titles in a short time and have amassed a record of 102-34.

The last time Atlanta beat PG was in 2016 right before the Hawks went on a tear and netted two state titles.

Last year the Hawks went 12-1 with that one loss being to powerhouse Carthage in a 3-point playoff loss.

The Rabbits opened last season with two big wins but lost the next three in close fashion.

Atlanta lost a tough game to Jefferson and a close game to Gladewater in district play but destroyed Tatum by 20 points in the season finale and made the playoffs.

Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

Linden-Kildare vs. Paul Pewitt

Linden-Kildare and Paul Pewitt have been playing one another since 1951 but have not played one another since 2015.

The Tigers hold a 31-25-1 advantage in the alltime series.

Pewitt enjoyed a 9-game win streak in the series back in the day and has won 8-of-the-last-11 matchups since the turn of the century.

The Tigers have enjoyed win streaks of their own in the series including one of five and two 7-game win streaks.

L-K had a rough time last season but did make the playoffs. Pewitt also had a rough season after starting out 0-7 but hopefully the drop from 3A-D2 to 2A-D1 this season will help.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

Queen City at Grace Community

Queen City and Grace Community have never played one another.

Grace Community, a private Christian school out of Tyler, had a solid year last season as they went 9-2 and made the playoffs.

The Cougars began the season with a 7-game win streak over schools such as Winona, Wills Point, Lone Oak and Spring Hill. In each of those games they scored more than 49 points.

Grace Community has been in the playoffs 11 out of the past 12 years, winning one District title, three Bi-District titles and a Regional championship.

QC has arguably the toughest district to play in year-in-and-year-out but went into district play with a 3-1 record and won its first district game against Elysian Fields.

The Bulldogs let a couple of games slip away from them last season but made the playoffs when the final regular season schedule wrapped up.

Kickoff for this contest is set for 7:30 p.m.