Straughn travels to Geneva for key region game

Straughn (1-3, 1-1 4A Region 2) will hit the road and strive to earn a crucial region win at Geneva (0-3, 0-2) on Friday, Sept. 20, at 7 p.m.

This will be the 14th meeting between the two teams since they first squared off during the 2004 season. The Panthers lead the all-time series 9-4 over the Tigers.

“Geneva is a well-coached team. Coach (Jamel) Harris and his staff do a great job over there. They have some skilled athletes mixed in with some kids with good size,” Head Coach Garrett Windham said. “They’re looking for their first win, so I expect them to play extremely hard and we’ll have to be ready to go when we get off the bus. Like us, they realize how important region wins are. Geneva is a tough place to play, so we need to be ready for a tough battle on the road.”

Last week, Straughn came up short to Dale County at home, 31- 7. Geneva made the trip to Ashford and also fell, 44-7.

Windham said he thought his team played hard and gave themselves a chance to win despite the final outcome last time out.

“We had some turnovers and missed assignments that either stalled out a drive offensively or kept our defense on the field too long. I didn’t think we capitalized on momentum after we drove the field and we cut the score to 9-7 going into the fourth quarter. We had a third-and-13 and couldn’t get the defense off the field the following drive after we scored. Hats off to Dale County who was well coached and more efficient than us offensively and defensively. We have to learn to take advantage of those individual plays on offense and defense that have an effect on the entirety of the game,” he said.

The Panthers earned a 34-21 road win over the Tigers in 2021.