ARP, Texas — It's finally the week that pits the Tigers against the Tigers in East Texas.
"Well they've been our rivals for I don't even know how long," said Arp junior Josh Smith.
Troup and Arp will face off in the 80th 7-Mile Rivalry game -- a game that means a ton to the teams and communities.
"It's competitive, I like it, it's competitive," said Arp senior tackle Abraxton Martin. "Everybody's going to talk, you got to stop that, don't let that get into your head and just play your game. I used to come watch these games in 2016, I went to a different school but still watched it, I came to watch the Troup and Arp games, very good games. And the rivalry -- it's there, and it's fun."
Arp enters this matchup at 3-1, while Troup comes in at 2-2. Arp head coach Wes Schminkey says its going to take his teams best effort to get out of the Tiger Cage with a win.
"Well it's just you know play our best football of the year, we say each week we want to be better and better each week, so Friday night we need to be the best we've been all year," said Coach Schminkey.
Coach Schminkey is of course aware of Troup's 2-2 mark entering this Friday, but he says when these teams get together, all that matters are those 48 minutes on the gridiron.
"They got some tough kids over there too but, you know but we've got our over here also and it's just, you know they're right close to each other, you know they're our neighbors pretty much and so we see each other all the time throughout the whole year so, it makes for a fun game," said Schminkey.
Troup's won the last two meetings, though they still trail Arp in all-time matchup wins by two. Overall though, both teams know they're in for a cat fight.
"We stick together we're gonna win the game," said Martin. "We play 100%, 110% actually through every play, finish the plays, we should win the game."