Despite missing several key players to injuries and illness, the Alcovy High School football team survived a close one against Forest Park, beating the Panthers 7-6.

Both teams struggled offensively throughout the night, with neither team tallying more than one touchdown. Though illness played a key role in the lack of depth on offense, Alcovy Coach Chris Edgar contributes the struggles to the team’s overconfidence against a winless Forest Park.

“I told them that was definitely our lowest output of the season,” he said. “We had some injuries, and there was a little stomach virus going through us, but we underestimated our opponent, which is dangerous to do. They have been struggling in the past, and I think some of our guys were too confident and thought they could just walk in there and things were going to happen. I tried to warn them all week about it being a potential trap game.”

The Tigers (4-1) were without key players Koby Perry and Quindrelin Hammonds on offense. In their absence, several players stepped up, including the entire defense, which held the Panthers (0-6) to just 46 total yards all night.

The defense, which is coached by Bobby Maddox, also came away with three turnovers.

“Our offense struggled a little bit, but our defense was lights out,” Edgar said. “When you have a defense that plays to that caliber, you’re going to be in any game you play. Our defense was really proud , and not only that, we were missing some of our best players, so we had some other guys had to step up and play, and they did a remarkable job. Coach Maddox had a fantastic game plan and was able to keep them in check all night.”

The Panther’s answered running back Adrian Robinson’s touchdown with one of their own after returning a kickoff deep into Tiger territory. According to Edgar, penalties played another crucial part of what kept the game so close.

“Part of our offensive struggle was that we’d have a penalty at an inopportune time that would slow us down,” he said. “Defensively, we had some penalties too. We had over 100 yards in penalties again, which is not good, and going into region play, that’s something we have to correct.”

The Tigers will face their first region opponent when they travel to Grovetown (2-3). The Tigers will need to get a handle on their penalties in order to survive region throughout the rest of the season.

“We have to have a great week in practice,” Edgar said. “I told the guys the most important thing is that we got the win, but we’ve got to be focused this week in practice. We have to be sharp, and we can’t be content on being 4-1. We have to practice like we mean it and execute at a high level to be ready for this Grovetown team on Friday night.

“One of the positive things that we did was that we had to fight for four quarters and had to struggle. Winning a close game like that will help us in the long run because we know that we can hold on to fight and win and play a four-quarter game.”