For those of you that think the Carrollton High School football team has a cakewalk this week with Avondale paying a visit on Friday night, Rayvan Teague would beg the differ.

The Trojan coach certainly isn’t expecting the same caliber Blue Devil ball club to come to Grisham Stadium for the 7:30 p.m. Week 3 showdown that stumbled in last year and suffered a 65-0 spanking.

“Well, they look like a different ball team,” Teague said. “Last year, they came in here, their coach had been in place for about a month. They started a bunch of ninth and tenth-graders. They had eight guys that were starters that didn’t even play. Didn’t even dress out. We were all excited with the opening of the stadium, and I think they got overwhelmed by that and we blew them out.”

The Blue Devils (2-0) actually enter Friday’s game with a longer win streak than the No. 8 Trojans (2-0) as they’ve won three straight dating back to their 52-0 victory over Cross Keys in the final game of the 2008 season, the team’s only win on the year.

Second-year Avondale coach Michael Carson returns nearly all of his starters from a year ago, opening with a 24-6 win over Lithonia and following that up with a 28-0 rout of Druid Hills.

“I’ve just told people to check scores. You can look and see,” Teague said. “The Lithonia team they beat (24-6) turned around and beat Forsyth Central, a 4-A school last week (26-16). So, obviously, they’re for real. They’re not just a flash in the pan.”

Carrollton senior defensive back Parker Tuggle said the team definitely isn’t overlooking the Blue Devils.

“We know that Avondale’s gotten a lot better this year, and we have not lost focus on them,” Tuggle said. “We’re not looking ahead to next week. We’re just focusing one week at a time. Avondale’s the next step.”

Senior wideout J.R. Freeland echoed that thought, noting that Avondale has quite a few play-makers, too, that can compete with the Trojans’ skill guys.

“They’ve came together, it seems,” Freeland said. “They’ve learned the game of football, and we’ve just got to come ready to play.”

Another concern for the Trojans is injuries, as another starter went down this week.

Junior offensive lineman Patrick Darby suffered a second-degree MCL tear, which will keep him sidelined for at least the next three weeks.

Darby joins junior defensive tackle Sherrod Mitchell on the injury list, as Mitchell will miss his second-straight game on Friday due to a shoulder injury. The Trojans also lost a pair of backup defensive linemen that suffered broken arms in last week’s junior-varsity game at Central, as well as another reserve that turned his ankle this week in practice.

“We’re really banged up for this time of the year,” Teague said. “We’re paper-thin on the offensive and defensive lines. Our skill kids are still fairly healthy for right now, doing a good job. So that’s exciting. But we are thin up front.”

Tuggle thinks the team will come together to help pick up the slack for its fallen teammates.

“We’ll be all right come game time,” Tuggle said. “We’ve had a couple guys go down with injuries, but every time somebody goes down, somebody’s got to step up.”

Teague is looking for his running game to continue to step it up after a somewhat slow start, saying it needs to be more physical than what it’s shown so far.

“Last week we executed better. We didn’t have the penalties stopping drives. We really didn’t turn the ball over and that type of stuff. We did score in the red zone. We want to continue that process,” he said.

The Trojans are averaging 108 yards per game on the ground two games in, with only senior fullback Jared Cooley (118 yards) over the 100-yard mark for the season.

The passing game, meanwhile, has looked strong, with junior quarterback A.J. Barge (14-for-20, 191 yards, 3 TDs) connecting with five different receivers through two contests.

Freeland (3 rec., 45 yards, TD) expects the offense to continue to develop as the season goes along.

“Oh, it’s getting better,” Freeland said. “The last two weeks we’ve been starting out slow. But as we get going, we’re getting better starting off better than we have.

“Whether we throw the ball or run the ball, if our linemen block, our perimeter blocks, we’re going to have a pretty good game.”

The Trojan defense has been impressive in both games so far, yielding an average of just six first downs and 91.5 yards of total offense per contest.

Teague said the defense will get tested once again by an athletic Blue Devil bunch on Friday.

“Their offense is just hammering at folks,” Teague said. “They’ve got a great tailback that’s getting lots of yards and doing a great job for them. So definitely it will be a different atmosphere, a different ball game.”

The Trojans realize this won’t be the same Avondale team that was completely overmatched a year ago, but they’re confident they can repeat the most important statistic from last season’s game — another ‘W.’

“Oh, yeah, they’re completely different. They’re all back from last year,” Tuggle said. “I mean, last year they were freshmen and sophomores. They’re all coming back, and they’ve got two really good running backs that we’re going to have to focus on tackling this week.”

So while those on the outside looking in may consider this a walk in the park for the Trojans, they’re not taking anything for granted against the Blue Devils.

“They’re a dangerous ball club, and we’re going to have to be in the mindset that we’re going to have to play in order to win,” Teague said.