Despite what three consecutive losses may have said for Lovejoy’s hopes for the season, the Wildcats are still putting up a fight.

Lovejoy’s fortunes began to turn when the Wildcats faced Pebblebrook two weeks ago.

Coming off a severe 55-6 loss to Newnan, the Wildcats took their aggression out on Pebblebrook to claim their first win of the season, 24-10.

Last week’s game offered more of a fight as they faced county rival Mundy’s Mill.

The Wildcats, who were down 13-3 at halftime had to rally to overcome the Tigers, ultimately scored the win 20-19.

“It was quite exciting for the fans, I don’t know about the coaches,” said coach Al Hughes. The kids played hard and battled the whole game.”

The win over the Tigers marks Lovejoy’s second consecutive win of the season and what may possibly be a turn around for the slow-starting program.

With a 2-2 region record, 2-3 overall, things are not quite looking as dismal as they were a few weeks when Lovejoy had a 0-3 record.

“We knew we were going to be a young football team this year,” he said. “Our seniors are really having to take up a lot of slack for us.”

There is only so much the seniors can do when one particular side of the ball is loaded with youth.

According to Hughes, the youth of Lovejoy’s offense extends as far as having a freshman in the backfield and a sophomore quarterback.

If the offense has any hope it will begin up front, where Auburn-bound Andre Harris anchors the offensive line.

“He’s done a good job being a solid foundation for a lot of young kids,” said Hughes.

The silver lining for Lovejoy has been the Wildcats’ defense.

“Our strength has probably been in our linebacker core on defense,” said Hughes. “They’ve been real productive.”

Linebackers Hondo Carter and Robert Smith have been leading the defense with 20 and 18 tackles against Pebblebrook, respectively.

“We just try to give the kids every opportunity,” said Hughes. “They do most of the work.”

Win or lose, Lovejoy has developed a tendency for sending kids to college.

“We’ve got eight kids that play in the SEC,” said Hughes. “In the past eight years, we’ve had 90-plus kids sign to play college football somewhere.”

Sending so many players to the next level has made Saturdays strange for Hughes, who spent all of Saturday watching a variety of football games with Lovejoy alumni on the field.

“I was wondering how many schools around the nation could say they were watching Auburn and Tennessee and have two kids on each team,” he laughed.

North Clayton triumphed over Mt. Zion, 23-0, to take the lead in Region 4-AAAA.

Riverdale shut down Morrow, 34-0, while Griffin did the same to Forest Park, 40-0.

Jonesboro suffered a region loss at the hands of Alcovy, 34-19.

This Friday will be a light one for Clayton County football, with Morrow, Mundy’s Mill, Lovejoy and Riverdale taking the week off.

North Clayton will duke it out with Forest Park at Tara Stadium, while Jonesboro welcomes Ola to the county at Twelve Oaks Stadium.

Mt. Zion will travel to Stockbridge.