There is a new feel around Alexander Football.

The school has upgraded its stadium, which was unveiled for the home crowd for the first time on Sept. 3, and new head coach Matthew Combs is gracing the sidelines.

However, the new feel hasn’t extended to the playing field as the Cougars continue to struggle following a 51-3 loss to North Paulding dropping the Cougars to 0-2 for the first time since 2006. The loss is also Alexander’s sixth straight loss overall.

The Cougars will look to get themselves off the schneid this week with a non-region test against AAA Arabia Mountain (0-2) on the road.

Across town things at Lithia Springs continue to be on the up-and-up. After falling down 10-0 to start the game, the Lions found life late in the second quarter. Quarterback Myles Mitchell broke off three long runs to set up the first score and eventually Lithia Springs would roll up 33 unanswered points including the go ahead touchdown pass to Brandon Oliver to stay undefeated. The 33-23 victory over Cedartown doubles the Lions win total from a year ago and moves Lithia Springs to 2-0 for the first time in more than 10 years while leaving them as one of only two undefeated teams in region 5AAAA-South along with Villa Rica.

“Anytime you’re 2-0, your excited about it, the entire senior class is carrying us right now and we have some momentum,” said Lions Head Coach Steve Horton. Lithia Springs will have a bye week as they gear up to play Alexander in their first region contest on Sept. 17. “I’m not excited about having the bye week. We are in a good rhythm and routine at this point but you have to have one somewhere. It will give us two weeks to prepare for our county rival over at Alexander, hopefully we can keep things rolling,” said Horton.

One week after being shutout by Hiram, Douglas County (1-1) bounced throw a shutout of their own, blanking traditional state powerhouse Warner Robins 14-0. Coach John Oglesby’s squad will be in for a big test in week 3 when they travel to take on a red hot East Paulding team that hasn’t allowed a point in their first two contests.

After falling down 34-7 at halftime a young Chapel Hill made a late comeback rolling off 24 unanswered but fell three points short as they lost to Central Gwinnett. A.J. Liddell has a huge night for the Panthers with touchdowns, passing, receiving and on special teams. Next week brings on old region foe in Pebblebrook (0-2) in a game that will be played at McEachern high school due to renovations of Pebblebrook’s field.