Alcovy finished up the regular season Friday night, and thanks to earning a playoff berth Nov. 2 has one more game to recover.
The Tigers traveled to Lovejoy, where the Region 2-AAAAAA champs defeated them 56-0.

Alcovy (4-6, 3-3) though, has a week to go over film and hit the practice field in preparation for its first opponent in the state playoffs, Newnan. The Tigers, the No. 3 seed, will go on the road to face the second seed from Region 3-AAAAAA, which has won three straight.

The Tigers have rotated wins and losses since their first victory of the season on Sept. 14, and are coming off a game against the state's seventh-ranked team.

"They're everything that people say they are," Alcovy coach Kirk Hoffman said. "They're an outstanding football team."

Alcovy couldn't find an answer for Lovejoy, which scored on offense, defense and special teams.

The Wildcats (9-1, 6-0) returned a punt for a touchdown, recovered a fumble in the end zone and scored on a safety after the Tigers snapped a ball out of the end zone.

"They were bigger and faster but our kids played hard," Hoffman said. "That team's kind of made to make big plays."

Helping Lovejoy with big plays was the Tigers' defense, which struggled in giving up the most points in team history.

"Defensively, we got them into a lot of third downs and longs and didn't make tackles," Hoffman said. "Offensively, we never could get into a rhythm."

Alcovy will get to working on maintaining a rhythm starting Monday as it prepares for Newnan.

"The thing that we have to do is we've got to go back and work on our tackling," Hoffman said. "The biggest thing is like I told the kids last night, ‘There is 32 teams left and we all go back to even ground.'"