QUITMAN — Two perennially-strong small school football programs will clash tonight at Quitman’s Veterans Stadium.

The Clinch County Panthers will make the 53-mile drive west on U.S. 84 to battle the Brooks County Trojans in what will be the season opener for both teams. Kickoff comes at 7:30 p.m.

Both teams are known for playing hard-nosed football and tough defense. And for playing winning football. Clinch County has won 379 games and five state championships since it began playing football in 1952. Brooks County has won 311 games and one state championship since 1959.

“It’s a great test,” Brooks County head coach Maurice Freeman said. “It’s South Georgia football. There’s nothing like it. It’s going to be a good football game.”

Freeman says the Panthers will be a tough first game opponent.

“They’ve got a few state titles, so you’ve always got to fear a team like that,” Brooks’ coach said. “They know how to win, and they’ve been successful as long as I’ve been playing against them. ... You always have to be aware of a team like that.”

Last Saturday, Brooks routed Albany 31-0 in its scrimmage. The scrimmage had been scheduled for Friday, but rain forced the teams to play on Saturday instead.

“It was a good scrimmage for us,” Freeman said. “We pride ourselves in being in good shape, and it showed. (The players) worked hard. ... We’re still working out some kinks, but I think they’re doing a pretty decent job.”

Brooks has changed its offense somewhat this year. Freeman has always favored the option and a power running game out of the I formation. But this year, with star quarterback Malcolm Parrish leading the Trojans, Brooks has gone to the spread.

“It’s not the ground and pound this year,” Freeman admitted. “We’re throwing the ball. Sometimes we call ourselves Air Trojan. We throw the ball quite a bit. We’re four wide the majority of the time. (Malcolm’s) got a good arm, and we’ve got some receivers that are pretty decent, and so we want to utilize that.”

 Parrish (who passed for 1,800 yards and rushed for 1,050 in 2011) has a talented group of receivers to throw the ball to, including Deric Herring, Sam Bradley, Damian Cobb, Atta Jenkins and Dejuan Miley.

“That’s a nice little crew of guys. They compliment each other extremely well,” Freeman said.

While Clinch is a young team, with only three starters returning on each side of the ball, Freeman says the Panthers have some talented players.

“I know the quarterback (James Core) and the running back (Octavious Johnson) are pretty good, and they’ve got a couple of offensive and defensive linemen that look pretty good on film. The safety looked pretty good. So I was impressed with a few of their players. I know they’re going to get after it,” Freeman said. “(Clinch head coach Jim Dickerson) is a great coach, and he’s going to have them ready.”

Clinch, which has been running the spread for a few years, is now lining up in the I formation as well.

“We are going to run the same offense, but we’re going to try to run more under center this year,” Dickerson said earlier this month. “We’re practicing under center a lot more, and plan on using it some. Not to say that we won’t run the spread a good portion of the time, but we felt that, as the field shrinks, we want to be able to get under center and run from under center more.”

“This year, I think they’ve changed the offense a little bit, from what we saw on tape,” Freeman said. “They’ll go from double twins to the pro to twins to the spread, so they’re a multiple offense team this year. It’s something you have to worry about. I think they’re a little bit young, but we were young, so I don’t take anybody that’s young for granted. They can still (beat you).”

Clinch graduated most of its starters from last year, so it will have some new faces running the offense. That includes Core and Johnson. The Panthers lost their top receiver, Fred Tiller (who is now playing college football at Kentucky), but have four talented, fast receivers in Kenny Lashore, Brandon Grady, Kenyun Morehead and Trey Collier.

The Panthers run a 5-2 base defense. But tonight, they could play some nickel and dime defenses against Brooks’ spread offense. Brooks’ base defense is a 4-4, but when Clinch gets in the spread, the Trojans may have to adjust as well.

Clinch and Brooks have played each other 13 times, with the first meeting coming in 1959. Brooks has won seven of those 13 games. The Panthers and the Trojans have not met since 2005 (when Brooks won by the narrowest of margins, 7-6).

In 1994, Brooks won its only state championship, and one of its toughest games was a 35-28 win over Clinch in Quitman. And in both 1988 and 2004, Clinch defeated Brooks on its way to a state title.