MOULTRIE — Colquitt County head coach Tim Cokely calls his team and Houston County, the team it will meet at 7:30 tonight at Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium, mirror images of each other.

Both are 1-5 overall and 0-2 in the region and both have had trouble offensively.

So much trouble, that both head coaches have abandoned what they are more comfortable with.

Cokely has long been a vertical passing proponent. This year, he has set his team up in the I-formation and tried to run the football.

Which is what George Collins, Houston’s first-year coach, would prefer doing.

But after graduating three outstanding runners off of last year’s team, Houston has found more success throwing the ball so far this season.

Neither team has had much success with doing what does not come naturally, but each could turn its season around with a victory tonight.

Houston has rushed for just 411 yards and two touchdowns after leading the region in rushing a year ago behind Eric O’Neal, D.J. Dodson and Martez King.

Garrick Davis is leading the Bears in rushing with just 169 yards on 52 carries.

So the Bears have turned to quarterback Jeff Thompson, a junior who started a year ago. He has completed 37-of-99 passes for 589 yards and three touchdowns, but has been intercepted seven times.

The Bears leading receiver is Craig Presley, who has 20 receptions for 327 yards and two touchdowns.

Thompson will take aim at Colquitt County defense that has been vulnerable to the pass at times this season.

The opposition has completed 61 percent of its passes and has thrown for seven touchdowns against the Packers this season. Colquitt has just two interceptions, both against Bainbridge sophomore quarterback James Hudson.

Last week, Coffee’s Burke Batten completed 8-of-11 passes for 80 yards and a 32-yard touchdown pass to Demario Bennett.

The Packers will try to stop the Bears with a defense that will have Donovan McGowen and L.J. Alonzo at the ends and Robert Fuller and Patrick Phillips at the tackles.

Justin Jones, Nyneson Jeudy and Terry McDaniel will be the linebackers. Brandon Carter broke his leg against Coffee last week and is out for the season. Eric Key, Justin Carlisle, Corzell Ellerson and Dominique Hunt will be in the secondary.

The Houston County defense started strong in its 33-7 loss to Lowndes last week, forcing a field goal and a pair of punts in their three appearances on the field.

Lowndes broke through in the second quarter and eventually put the game away, however.

Opponents have rushed for 1,303 yards and passed for 644 more against the Bears.

The Packers are averaging just 216.8 yards of offense a game, including only 56 yards a game through the air.

Colquitt had just 27 passing yards in the loss to Coffee and more than a third of the Packers rushing yards came on 67-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run by backup quarterback Quin Roberson.

“We’d like to have some positive things happen early,” said Cokely, whose team has scored just one first-quarter touchdown in its six games. “I just don’t know how to make that happen. “We didn’t play as well offensively as we had been against Coffee. Defensively, we didn’t play real bad. The offense just didn’t give the defense much to work with.

“We just need to be more physical up front and more aggressive on both sides of the ball.”

The Packers will start Torrey Edwards and either Chris Walsh or Dwight Lewis at the tackles, R.J. Taylor and Weston Gittens at the guards and Matt Howell at center.

Eric Roberts, who started the last two games at tackle, will be able to concentrate on defense this week, Cokely said.

Brandon Coleman, the former guard who caught his first pass last week, will be at tight end.

Tomorus Collins and Glenn Strickland will be the wide receivers.

John Michael Harrison will start at quarterback.

Michael Jenkins will be at fullback and the other running back duties will be split among Dominique Presley, Darryl Thomas, Travon Littleton and Eric Key.

Key remains the Packers leading rusher despite just one carry for two yards last week.

Because Jarrett Sutton and C.J. Copeland are no longer with the team, Key has had to take a larger role in the secondary.

Both teams will be trying to end losing streaks tonight.

Colquitt County has lost three in a row. Houston has lost four straight.

The Packers have not won at home since defeating Valdosta 17-15 last year. They are 0-4 at home since, losing to Coffee and Tift County last year and Cook and Thomas County Central this year at home.

Since starting the 2006 season 5-0, the Packers have gone 2-9.

And while Houston County has defeated the Packers three years in a row, Cokely said he is more concerned with what happened last week, rather than last year.

But the loser of tonight’s game will be 0-3 find it difficult to make the playoffs.

“I believe you play like you practice,” Cokely said. “And we’ve practiced pretty well this week.”

Also tonight, Coffee (5-1, 1-1) will travel to Tift County (3-2, 0-1). On Saturday, Valdosta (5-1, 2-0) will travel to meet Warner Robins (3-2, 1-0).

Lowndes is off.