With the season opener Aug. 27 at home against archrival Flint River Academy looming large, Griffin Christian travels Friday to take on the Danny Cronic-coached Heritage School in a GISA preseason football scrimmage.

The Kerry Phillips-coached Griffin Christian Crusaders have already hosted controlled practices against fellow GISA schools, topping Arlington Christian 18-6 two weeks ago at home and falling to Arlington 6-0 while beating Harvester Christian 19-0 Friday night in a split practice at GCHS.

“I think we’re improving, getting better each week,” said Phillips.

The difference between the controlled practices the last two weeks and Friday‘s scrimmage will be on special teams where everything will be live this week.

“We’ll also have officials, no coaches on the field,” Phillips added.

Phillips is chalking the early part of GCHS’s early session last week against Arlington to overconfidence.

“We were a little disappointed in the first series we played against Arlington,” he said. “We did not line up in the right places and we were not as aggressive as we were the week before. I guess we came in thinking we played them well the week before. After the first series, however, we did better.”

Griffin dominated the nightcap as running back Anthony Lewis tallied a pair of touchdowns to pave the way.

“The offensive line did better than we did the week before even though we didn’t score (against Arlington),” said Phillips. “We came off the ball better.”

Phillips and his staff want to see the offensive line brush up on a few things this week.

“Sometimes we‘re not blocking the correct people,” said Phillips. “And we need to hold our blocks a little longer.”

On the other side of the ball, Phillips and his staff were encouraged from the prior week’s practice.

“Our coverage pass-wise was better,” he said. “This week we want to continue to have good pass coverage and get a better rush on the passer.”

In The Heritage School, GISA Region 4-AA champion Griffin Christian will face a team it fell to 13-12 in region play to last season.

However, with this being Cronic’s first season there Phillips and his staff expect it to be a little different. Phillips said he heard Cronic — the long-time East Coweta, Forsyth-Central, LaGrange and Cherokee head coach — has the Hawks running the wing on offense and a four-man front on defense.

“Regardless, it’ll help us get ready for Flint River,” said Phillips, who noted Flint River will likely run a different offense and defense. “They’ll still help make us better as far as assignment sharp.”