A year ago, Adairsville started a promising season with losses to two high school football teams, and that took some of the luster off their expectations.

Last week, it met the first of those opponents -- Ridgeland -- and walked away from Tiger stadium with a last-minute 17-14 result on the strength of a 25-yard field goal by kicker Dakota Hines, a victory that just might have been a signature win for a program that is showing signs of becoming a force in its region.

Now the Tigers are preparing for Dade County, a team with a stout defense, a strong running attack and some scrappy players, and the second of the two teams who hung losses on them to start their season last year.

"They've got some strong kids," Adairsville head coach Jim Kremer said. "They're physical and well coached. They're coming off a great season last year. We're going to have to earn it. Period."

Last year the Tigers lost 19-11 to the Wolverines, then a team that included an experienced quarterback and some college-bound linemen who were quite a load for their opponents to handle.

They return three offensive starters and seven on the defensive side, have a formidable running attack and have already notched a win, as they defeated Gordon Lee, 7-0, Friday night.

Like Adairsville, which plays in 7A-AA, the Wolverines, who play in 7B-AA, won in a fourth-quarter game, the type of win that teams can draw on all season long as a source of mental toughness.

Senior running back David Page, who is a big part of a strong Dade running attack returning this season, averaged eight yards per carry against Gordon Lee, gaining 81 yards on 10 carries.

Travis Nunley, who rushed 15 times for 48 yards, helped the Wolverines earn the win with a 19-yard touchdown run with about five minutes remaining in the contest.

The Dade running attack carried the ball 41 times, gaining 143 yards. Just as impressive was the stinginess of its defense, as the Wolverines gave up a paltry 66 yards on 35 carries to Gordon Lee (6-A).

That defensive work caught the eyes of the Tiger coaching staff.

"They stoned Gordon Lee," Kremer said. "Their defense didn't let them pass the 50-yard line all night. They did a great job."

The Wolverine offense had some good numbers but they also had turnovers.

"Offensively, they turned the ball over probably six or seven times," Kremer said. "Both of them turned the ball over a lot. We need to capitalize if they make any mistakes like that."

Neither team distinguished itself in the passing game, as Dade completed one of seven passes for 14 yards with one interception, and Gordon Lee completed one of five for seven yards.

Adairsville drew a more diverse attack in its matchup against the Panthers. Ridgeland rushed 32 times and gained 130 yards while completing four of nine passes for 31 yards with one interception.

The Tigers turned to their ground attack 49 times and netted 203 yards while their passing game went 13-of-24 for 129 yards with one interception.

Their defense also stood tall in the victory.

The Tigers are going into the match with a little confidence after their win over Ridgeland.

"I felt like our team last year still had some confidence going into the game against them," Kremer said, "but when we ended up 0-2 starting our season ... and fighting an uphill battle. Going into it 1-0 is certainly better than going into it 0-1."

He said the Tigers picked up positives and negatives from their game.

"There's plenty of things to work on," Kremer said. "The positive thing we learned about ourselves is we have the ability to keep our poise in tight games in the fourth quarter. The critical thing is we've made a lot of mistakes, a lot of mistakes on both sides of the ball, like everybody else. We've got a mature football team, and there's always room for improvement. The teams that stay healthy and the ones who realize they've always got to improve are the ones who prevail in the end and go to playoffs and have a very successful year."

He said the Tigers must cut down on mental mistakes. "Every week teams' offenses are going to be catching up. Right now, most teams' offenses are a little behind. We have to work on executing, knowing who to block, things like that. As long as we do that and we progress, we're going to be fine.

"Of course you always have to get better defensively every week. The kicking game also progressed. I really thought we won that phase against Ridgeland. I think we won about all phases -- don't get me wrong -- the only phase we didn't shine in was we didn't score enough points. We had a lot of yards, a lot of first downs. I think we had 79 snaps last week and they had 42. We had a lot of first downs. We've just got to put it in the end zone."