One week after losing to Lambert, Etowah bounced back with a shutout win over Centennial last Friday.

For the Eagles, it was their first win under new coach Dave Svehla. But more importantly than that, it marked a considerable improvement between the first and second weeks.

The improvement is something the Eagles look to maintain tonight when they visit Pope for the first time in nine years.

“I think we made improvements, certainly,” Svehla said. “We ran the ball better but still had some issues with penalties and left some penalties on the field. We’re going to have to be a lot better against Pope.”

Pope, meanwhile, is a team that struggled in its first two games of the season. The Greyhounds (0-2) were shut out by Wheeler last week, and are similarly looking for improvement.

Pope is using the early games of the regular season to help mold a team that is much younger than its team of a year ago. As a result, the Greyhounds’ attitude is different.

“We have the region championship curse,” Pope coach Matt Kemper said of his team, which won the Region 5AAAA title last year before losing in the second round of the state playoffs. “We’re playing good football teams, and I think we can’t get caught up in, ‘Did we win? Did we lose?’ It’s, ‘Are we playing hard?’ The football that counts for us is way down the road.”

Pope doesn’t play its first subregion game until Oct. 5 at Osborne.

Although Etowah is being led by a first-year coach, one in Svehla that is running a new system, the players around him is far more experienced. As a result, he is extolling the virtue of competing game in and game out, regardless of if they count toward region standing.

“I know that they don’t count toward the postseason, but that doesn’t really impact us in any way shape or form — physically, mentally, emotionally or psychologically,” Svehla said. “We’re competitive people and want to perform at our very best every time we get a chance to play. Granted, you want to be at your best in region play. But you sure want to see signs that we’re making improvements from week to week.”

In its change from running a veer last season to the I-formation this year, Etowah is using last year’s starting quarterback, John Oliver, at wide receiver, while Reeves Johnson, who sat out last season with an ACL injury, resumed his role as the starting QB.

“(Oliver) is an athlete,” Svehla said. “He’s 6-foot-3, 200 pounds and has good, soft hands. As a coach, I’m not sure I can justify playing a game out there and looking on the sidelines to see one of the better athletes standing on the sidelines. It’s good having both (Oliver and Johnson) out there.”

However, Etowah’s smash-mouth attitude has not changed.

“(Etowah relies) on being very tough,” Kemper said. “They just run straight at you. Wheeler and Marietta were extremely athletic — not that Etowah isn’t — but they are a totally different kind of football team. They’re going to try and smash you, chew the clock, play great defense and special teams. So, it’s a completely different kind of animal.”

As a result, Kemper believes that Pope will need to show more intensity and more passion tonight against Etowah than it had over the first two weeks of the season.

“I think the biggest thing for us is bringing a little more passion to how we’re playing,” Kemper said. “We’re a young football team looking for leaders right now. We’ve got a lot of juniors and sophomores. You have to feel your way out. You look for a lot in your captain. You’ve got guys in new positions and in new territory.

“We’re not going to be a ‘rah-rah’ football team, because that’s not what we believe in. But we want to play disciplined football and do what we’re coached to do. They understand that and know they need to get better at it.”