Johns Creek at Lambert

When, where: Friday, 7:30 p.m., at The Horn in Suwanee.

Records, rankings: Johns Creek is 0-1 overall, 0-0 in Region 6-AAAAAA and unranked in Class AAAAAA; Lambert is 0-1, 0-0 and unranked.

Series history: Lambert leads 3-2.

Last meeting: Lambert won 41-7 in 2014.

What to know: Johns Creek is in its first year under new head coach Matt Kemper, who left Pope after going 39-35 in seven seasons. The pinnacle of Kemper’s tenure at Pope came in 2011 when Pope went 10-2 and won a first round playoff game. Kemper replaced Mike Cloy, who started the Johns Creek program in 2009. The Gladiators were 9-2 and 8-3 in 2011 and 2012 but fell to 1-19 the past two seasons, and so in came Kemper. Johns Creek opened with a 17-14 loss to Woodstock last week.

Lambert opened with a 17-7 loss at Lanier two weeks ago. It was something of an encouraging performance for the Longhorns’ defense, which came up with two interceptions and recovered a fumble, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a poor showing on offense. Lambert gained just 69 total yards, albeit against the No. 8-ranked team in Class AAAAA with the state’s No. 1 prospect, defensive tackle Derrick Brown. The Longhorns used this game last season for a (brief) bounce-back. Let’s see if they can do it again.