The Alcovy football team tied its highest point total of the season last week, putting up 24 points for just the second time this season, both in wins.

Tonight, the Tigers will look to keep its offense going against a tough defensive opponent, a Region 2-AAAAAA companion and a Newton County rival to boot.

The Newton Rams face off against Alcovy looking for its first win, as well as an offensive outburst, having scored just seven points all season.

The Rams come into tonight's game with James Hardeman as their starting running back for the third straight week after being given the role against Valdosta on Sept. 21

Since taking over as the starting feature back, Hardeman has done well, going for more than 80 yards at Valdosta and being the primary focus of Langston Hughes defense last week.

The same will hold true against Alcovy, as the Tigers look to gain momentum from a 24-21 overtime win against Luella Sept. 28.
"He's done an outstanding job since he's gotten in there," Alcovy coach Kirk Hoffman said. "If you look at the film, he's had some nice runs against Langston Hughes and some good runs against a good Valdosta team."

The Tigers' first task will be to neutralize Hardeman, and keep sophomore Kemani Pittman from being able to get big plays off.
"Defensively we have a huge task ahead of us," Hoffman said. "We have to find a way to play disciplined. We didn't do that for four quarters last week, at times we became an undisciplined team."

The Tigers went up in the first half against Luella, scoring 21 second-quarter points, but let up in the second half, allowing the Lions to come back.

In overtime, the Tigers' special teams and defense stepped up to kick the game-winning field goal and preserve the victory with an interception.

Hoffman said he hopes the Tigers can continue to put all three aspects together like it did in the extra time a week ago.

"I thought one of the things helped us last week is we got a lead, let it slip away and then found a way to win that thing in overtime," Hoffman said. "Hopefully, wins like that help your team know you can battle back."

While Hoffman has the impression that his team can battle back, he is still looking for more rhythm out of the Tigers' offense.

"The biggest thing we're trying to do is we're trying to find a rhythm," Hoffman said. "We get into rhythms and we get out of rhythm, when you look at our games we had some spurts where we looked real good on offense and some games were we haven't.

"We have to get consistency."

Against Luella, Alcovy started Marcus Williams at quarterback before going with Clayton Anderson for the final two quarters and overtime.

This week both quarterbacks will be given a chance, with the one with the hot hand remaining under center.

"We're going to do what we've done all year going to play both of them," Hoffman said. "I think you have to give credit to both quarterbacks."