Fans will have a chance to see history today as Newton hosts a state playoff game for the first time in the school's 63-year history of football.

The Newton Rams host East Coweta at 7:30 p.m. today, two weeks after earning a No. 2 seed in the state playoffs. The Indians are the third seed out of Region 3-AAAAAA after falling to Newnan in a battle for second place in the region a week ago.

Newton hosted a region playoff game back in the late 1980's but will welcome a state playoff foe to Sharp for the first time in its history.

"It talks about the growth of the program that it's going in the right direction," Newton coach Cortez Allen said. "The community is excited for our kids. The opportunity for us to get our first playoff game at home and work toward getting another one is a great one."

The Rams have not yet won a state playoff game and have their greatest chance to date in hosting a lower seed in front of the home crowd.

"As a team we play much better when there's an atmosphere at our home games," Allen said. "We really need support of the home team. We're encouraging everyone to come out to support the kids and make it the best atmosphere possible to try to go out and win this game."

The Rams have been working toward winning with a strong week of practices after its most successful game of the season, a 40-0 victory at Morrow on Nov. 9.

"They're definitely pumped and very excited," Allen said. "Practice has been really crisp, and (Tuesday) we probably had one of our best tempo practices probably since camp. We're really excited about the way we have been performing and the focus is great."

East Coweta has been allowing 23.2 points per game, and Newton comes in with its two best offensive performances in the previous two weeks.

The Indians finished 4-6 this season and won three of their last five games. East Coweta lost four straight earlier this season, including back-to-back losses to ranked teams, 31-7 to Sandy Creek and 30-7 to Lovejoy.

East Coweta and Newton were in the same region over the last two years, with the Indians winning each of the previous two matchups, 20-14 in 2010 and 25-8 in 2011.

"Last year's game was really close and I feel like we could have won the ball game, but the clock ran out on us," Allen said.

Newton will look to avoid that this year with a fast start as it has been successfully doing this season.

"We did a great job this year getting started fast," Allen said. "We feel we can get started early and jump out on these guys."