RICHMOND HILL -- College football will have to take a backseat to Richmond Hill football fans.

The Wildcats (4-5) be playing on Saturday afternoon in the GHSA 6A playoff ball when Lovejoy Wildcats (4-5) comes into Wildcat Stadium.

In a matter of three weeks, Richmond Hill jumped from No. 5 to No. 2 in Region 2-6A, earning them a home playoff game in the first round with Effingham and Statesboro dropping in region standings.

“We just stayed the course and put in the work,” Richmond Hill head coach Matt LeZotte said. “We finished the season strong and let those other guys figure out what was going to happen. We felt really good about the way that we finished. The expectation in this program has not changed. We expect to make the playoffs and to win every game that we show up and play. We’re going to take that type of mentality into the first round ready to go.”

The Wildcats have reached the postseason in the last six seasons and hosted a playoff game in the last four.

Richmond Hill have put up 19.4 points a game.

Quarterback Ty Goldrick has 1,368 passing yards and nine touchdowns over the course of the season.

But the Wildcats may try to run through their powerback Zion Gillard, who is coming off a 210-rushing yard, and two touchdown performance in Richmond Hill’s regular season finale against South Effingham.

But if Richmond Hill wants to win through the air, wide receiver Ravon Grant will be looked to as he leads the receiving core with 664 yards and four touchdowns.

The Richmond Hill defense is led by safety Tommy Bliss and linebacker Bodie Custer.

Rahmaan Moore, Brian Ruland, and Hayden McCullough are the main pass rushers for Richmond Hill, combining for 12 sacks.

Lovejoy outscores Richmond Hill in points, having an average of 21.8 per game.

They can get stubborn on the defensive end, only allowing a little over a touchdown a game with 15.8.

“They’re very stingy,” LeZotte said about Lovejoy’s defense. “They create takeaways and they fly to the ball. They’ve got some highly recruited guys on that team. It’s going to be a test for us and something that we can’t take lightly. They’re one of the better teams in the state when they are executing on all cylinders. There is a lot of people counting on us to be a good football team. And it’s not just our players. Our cheerleaders count on us to have a good football team. They make a lot of money. And our band makes a lot of money when we have a good football team. Hosting a playoff game is a plus. Anytime that a team has to make a trip to come visit us, we have that homefield advantage. It helps our people out across the board.”

The elements of this first round game will be different with it being on a Saturday instead of a Friday and at 1 p.m. instead of the normal high school football start time of 7:30.

“Playing on a Saturday afternoon instead of an evening is something a little different,” LeZotte said about the new playoff schedule that GHSA announced. “Our guys are going to be ready. We’re going to show up in front of a big crowd. Hopefully they get rowdy and show up and tailgate at about 10 a.m. They’ll be ready to go once kickoff comes. When the state said that our classification was going to going to have to play on Saturday, we started spinning the wheels about what’s going to draw the largest crowd and the best setting for a high school football game. When we discussed it with the administration, we all agreed that an early afternoon Saturday game would be a great fit. It’s before the Georgia game gets started and a lot of college football games in that afternoon. So, we fit it in that time schedule to give our guys a little taste of what it’s like to play on a Saturday. You wake up and eat a program meal that’s not a pasta dish but more of a breakfast dish and you just adapt and roll. We’re going to start our pregame process five hours prior to kickoff like we typically do. And we’re going to build it from there. I think they’re going to respond very well to it.”

Regardless, both Wildcat will be gunning for a second-round playoff berth on Saturday afternoon.

The battle of the ‘Cats will kickoff on Saturday, Nov. 13 at 1 p.m. inside of Wildcat Stadium.