Things only get tougher from here. That’s the story for Alcovy High School football as the Tigers begin region play tonight at Starr’s Mill in Fayetteville. Tonight’s game is the first of four straight games on the road for Alcovy. “It’s like I said before the season, these first four games are brutal,” Alcovy Coach Kirk Hoffman said. “We don’t have a breather on the schedule. Where can we rest? Our first four games are against playoff teams.” One of those teams was Harris County, which beat the Tigers last week at home. The other two are Union Grove next week and Griffin after that. That’s certainly not the type of schedule conducive to opening the season with a winning record. “Well, it is what it is,” Hoffman said. “I’ll play anyone. It doesn’t matter to me. I like playing against that type of competition. You just don’t get a chance to play one of those 1-9 teams and go in knowing you can take it easy and get a win.” Starr’s Mill (2-0) took care of business last week with a 21-7 win over Woodland-Henry in a non-region crossover game. In two games, the Panthers have score 41 and 21 points but more impressively, given up just seven. Alcovy has scored just six points in their two games — a Tre Sorrells touchdown in week one against Eastside, and were shutout last week against Harris County. Offensively, the Tigers will be without quarterback Bowen Braswell. Braswell was knocked out of last week’s game late in the second quarter and didn’t return. Hoffman said he sustained a head injury but wouldn’t go so far as to say whether it was a concussion. But with the new concussion rules and the general safety surrounding a head injury, Hoffman will sit Braswell and turn to Cornell White to run the offense. And that may not be a bad idea. White was effective in running the ball when in the game and he’s regularly worked into the offense in the wildcat formation. He’ll run the offense similarly to how Rod Tolen ran it the past two years but Hoffman said things won’t look dramatically different with Braswell out. “We’re not going to totally change what we’ve been doing,” he said. The Tigers could have some opportunities. Starr’s Mill gave up 203 yards in the first half of its game with Woodland — 168 of those on the ground, and was on its heels defensively early on before settling down. The Panthers were lucky to only trail 7-0 at the half before the offense finally got going in the second half. Alcovy’s defense will be tested. John Hale and Travis Gunnells along with newcomer Biohmo Karmo have been solid to begin the year. And they’ll need to be good again this week. Starr’s Mill senior quarterback Adam Holley threw for 172 yards on 20 of 25 passing and picked up 58 yards on the ground. Alcovy will also be without wide out Kenard Murray who broke a bone in his hand on the opening kick versus Harris County. Murray joins DeVon Edwards as key offensive weapons expected to miss significant time. Edwards is out for the season with a broken collarbone.