Although their history is brief, the Langston Hughes Panthers will try to extend their longest winning streak ever this Friday in Newnan.

And they will have to do it against a tough Newnan team, which is also 5-1 overall and 1-0 in Region 3-AAAAAA.

“I want to see the guys get out there and compete and see what it takes to get to the next level,” Langston Hughes football coach Willie Cannon said. “Newnan has been a constant playoff team so we are going to try to hopefully see where we are as a team.”

Last Friday, the Panthers won their third straight game, which is their best run in four seasons. They missed a third consecutive shutout but still earned a 34-7 victory over Douglas County in Region 3-AAAAAA competition.

“The defense has been playing pretty well,” Cannon said. “I’m very proud of them but after having a chance to watch the film we are still making quite a few mistakes that we have to clean up. Overall, they are giving great effort though.”

Keion Davis rushed for more than 100 yards and reached the end zone twice. Kentavious Eberhart threw a touchdown pass to Trevon Badger, and Justin Brown ran for a TD.

“I’m very proud of the way the kids played in the second half,” Cannon said. “They continued to fight after getting down early.

“It was very exciting to get that first region win in the books and see the kids continue to get better every week,” Cannon said. “Right now, we are proud of our record of 5-1 but we know we have a lot of work ahead of us still.”

Getting that second region win will be tough for the Panthers since Newnan is just as hot, following a 34-16 victory over Tri-Cities last Friday. The Cougars have also convincingly defeated Langston Hughes in each of the past two seasons.

“They caused some turnovers early deep in our territory last year,” Cannon said. “They got up on us and it just never got rolling for us the entire game.”

Newnan did the same thing against Tri-Cities last week, outscoring the Bulldogs 24-3 in the second quarter, thanks to fumble recoveries for touchdowns by Tonaris Portress and Rodney Tennie.

Tray Matthews and J.K. Britt also scored in the contest.