DRANEVILLE — Chattahoochee County scored two defensive touchdowns in a win against Marion County last season.

The Eagles hope to turn the tables this time around.

The Panthers have moved from a spread attack to the spread option, and the Eagles have plans to disrupt their offense.

“I think our defensive ends have to play well,” said Mike Swaney, who is making his debut as head coach. “Anytime you play an option team, you’ve got to control the quarterback. You can’t let him control the game. You’ve got to make him make quick decisions. We’re going to go after them.”

ChattCo averaged 38.5 points a game last season as quarterback David Cochran passed for 2,817 yards and 33 scores while rushing for 438 yards and five touchdowns.

Swaney said the game plan starts with slowing him down.

“David’s smart and a good decision maker,” he said. “He’s a good-sized kid can turn up and get yards when he needs to. The main thing is he knows what he’s doing. He limits the mistakes they make. He’s by far the key.”

When the Eagles have Tre Carter and Ykeem Wells at defensive ends, that’s when Marion may have the most success. While the Panthers lost all their top receivers, Swaney doesn’t expect them to dismiss the pass.

He said it will be a completely different team from last season under first-year coach Shaun Pope.

The Panthers can, however, expect the same kind of team in the Eagles. Marion clinched its first-ever state playoff berth last season and finished 7-4. It beat Miller County 10-7 in its scrimmage — the varsity played three 9-minute quarters.

The Eagles scored all 10 points in the fourth quarter, but Swaney said the offensive line needs to pick it up.

“Their defensive front is big; they’ll be bigger than we are,” he said. “We’ve got to really get after them. They’ve got a few kids playing both ways. We’ll try to run some stuff that will allow our linemen to out-quick them. Our backs need to hit the hole quicker. We’re going to go wide some and get them running side to side and hopefully get winded. We’ve just got to be consistent, and hopefully, our two-platooning will pay off for us.”

With Region 4-A playing a full region schedule, each game counts toward a spot in the playoffs.

“Like I told the kids, who wins this one has a leg up and whoever loses has got to start climbing back up. Just the fact that it’s a region game makes it big,” said Swaney.