COVINGTON, Ga. — After four quarters of back-and-forth football, the Alcovy Tigers lost a 28-26 nail biter against the Jonesboro Cardinals.
The game kicked off at 2 p.m. on Saturday after Friday’s scheduled game being postponed due to “unforeseen circumstances.”
Despite the change, Alcovy’s Kemoi Burke did not show any signs of rust.
The senior tailback rushed for three scores on Saturday.
On the Tigers’ second offensive drive, they moved down to the goal line on a long pass from PJ Wolfe to Ashton Dawkins. The pass setup a two-yard touchdown rush from Burke on the ensuing play.
Before the Tigers went into halftime, Burke scored again from the goal line to give Alcovy a 20-16 edge.
In the final minute of the third quarter, Burke found the end zone for the third time. Burke’s third score gave the Tigers a 26-22 lead.
To go along with a solid performance in the run game, the Alcovy special teams unit made critical plays in key spots.
On Jonesboro’s first offensive drive, the Tigers got into the backfield to block the punt.
On the Cardinal’s final possession of the first half, Alcovy blocked a punt again to give the ball back to Wolfe and the Tigers’ offense with under a minute left on the clock.
The second blocked punt set up Burke’s second touchdown to give Alcovy the lead.
Wolfe took every snap at quarterback for the Tigers on Saturday, and came away with a touchdown of his own. With three minutes left in the second quarter, Wolfe found BJ Johnson across the middle for the touchdown pass.
The 26 points from the Tigers were still not enough to topple the Cardinals.
Jonesboro continued to answer Alcovy scoring drives with ones of its own.
On the first drive of the game, the Cardinals forced a fumble by Burke and returned it for a Scoop-and-Score.
Later in the game, Jonesboro scored two touchdowns on chunk plays.
The Cardinals scored on the ground with a 74-yard rushing touchdown from Donovan McCoy to take the 16-14 lead in the second quarter.
Coming out of halftime trailing 20-16, Jonesboro took the lead back on the first drive of the third quarter through the air.
Cardinals’ quarterback Jamon Jones connected for the 76-yard touchdown to gain the 22-20 advantage.
After finding themselves down again late in the fourth quarter, the Jonesboro offense put together a long drive that ultimately gave them the win.
The long drive capped off with an 11-yard touchdown from Jones to give the Cardinals a 28-26 lead over Alcovy.
The Tigers were held to a three and out on the final drive to end the game.
Alcovy’s loss moves them to 3-6 on the year with a 2-4 record in Region 3-AAAAAA play. The Tigers will play their regular season finale Friday, Nov. 3 against the Rockdale County Bulldogs (2-7,1-5).
