After one week the Mangum football team is already halfway to reaching its total of two victories last season. With a 25-14 win over Hobart, the Tigers are riding the cloud of success for the first time in several years.

"On a positive note, it's a huge win for them," said Mangum coach Mark Box. "I don't know for sure but someone told me it's been 22 years since Mangum has beat Hobart."

Box said the main reason for the win was that the Tigers were in better shape than Hobart and they played with excitement and enthusiasm.

Paul Epperson led the Tigers with 125 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries in the win over Hobert. Quarterback Jace Clayton totaled 16 rushes for 63 yards and was 1-for-2 passing for nine yards.

But despite the win, the coaching staff still sees a few areas that needed to be worked on before they play Seiling on Friday.

"We need to see improvement in the little things," said Box. "Proper steps on defense, blocking the right people."

In preparation for Seiling, the Mangum coaches face a few challenges that they didn't have to deal with last week.

"We have to survive that long bus ride," said Box. "And we have to refocus. We were a little flat early in the week. Once they get that way they have to come out of themselves."

While Mangum is coming off a win, Tipton is trying to overcome a crushing loss in its first week of action. The Tigers fell to Fox 42-27 and travel to Merritt (0-1) on Friday.

"We played good at times," said Tipton coach William Dickey. "But the problem we had was we had mistakes here and there. Against a team like Fox that is hard to pull out. We need to play better defensively. Recognize sets and stuff of that nature."

Dickey was not disappointed with the team's offensive output. Leading Rusher Andrew Dixon ran for 147 yards. Greg Dorsey accounted for 77 yards in his first start.

But it's on defense where Dickey knows his team must improve, or it could be a long season.

We are still young in the secondary," Dickey said. "Still have a long ways to go. I knew going in that was going to be our weak spot. We had only one returnee. It's just having a leader on the field. I'm looking for upperclassmen to step up and take charge. Need somebody in secondary to take charge."

Reach Michael Kinney at sports@altustimes.com