After losing its final home game of the 2012 season, the Lions football team will travel to Livingston to play West Alabama Nov. 8 at 6:30 p.m.

The game will be the Lions’ final game of the season and the team’s last chance to have a winning overall season. The team is currently 5-4.

“We’ve just got to get ready to show up and play this last game and hopefully win it — have a winning season,” said head coach Bobby Wallace.

The game will be a tough one, with West Alabama being ranked No. 1 in the GSC and No. 21 in the nation. Though the Wolves are coming off a Nov. 3 road loss to Abilene Christian, they hold a season record of 7-3 and are still undefeated in the GSC (4-0).

The Lions are coming off a 28-38 home loss at the hands of the Tarleton State Texans Nov. 3, in which they blundered a fourth-quarter comeback when they allowed the Texans to march the ball 75 yards downfield for a touchdown and two-point conversion in the final minutes of the game.

“We left some plays on the field that we should have made,” said junior quarterback Chris Alexander.

After the Texans’ touchdown, the Lions had a disappointing drive before handing the ball back to Tarleton. Tarleton scored a field goal with 16 seconds left in the game, putting the final score at 38-28.

“We put ourselves in the chance to win with four minutes to go in the game; you can’t ask for nothing more than that,” Wallace said. “(We kicked) the ball out of the back end zone. They’ve got to go 75 yards to score and they did it.”

Before the Texans’ touchdown, the Lions had put together back-to-back scoring drives, taking them from being down 27-14 to having a lead of 28-27 with 4:37 left in the game.

“It was very disappointing for a lot of reasons – giving up a 99-yard touchdown play, lack of discipline staying on sides,” Wallace said. “Offensively, it looked good at times, but we turned it over in crucial times.”

The 99-yard play Wallace referred to occurred in the second quarter when Tarleton quarterback Jake Fenske completed a pass to Cordell Valentine at the Tarleton 1-yard line. Valentine then carried the ball 99 yards to score a touchdown.

Alexander said he thinks the team needs to be more aware throughout the game.

“Every play of the game counts,” Alexander said. “We just have to play like every play counts.”

Alexander said the only word to describe the way he and other players felt after the Nov. 3 loss was “disappointment.”

“We’ve just got to play better,” Alexander said. “The coaches put us into position to make plays. We’ve just got to play better and execute.”

Wallace, who said he doubted some players’ desire to play after the Nov. 3 loss, said he hopes the Lions will have a good week at practice and that the players will step up.

“We’ve just got to get ready for this week – and the competitors, they’ll come out and practice hard and play hard and get ready to play – and if (there are players who aren’t competitors), we need to find others,” Wallace said.

The Nov. 3 game will be televised on “GSC-TV” on CSS and will be live-tweeted by @NorthAlabamaFootball.