TIFTON, Ga. — Tiftarea Academy is all dressed up this week and no place to go. Their homecoming football game has been canceled.

Tiftarea (5-0) was scheduled to host Notre Dame Academy, based out of Duluth, but the Irish Wolfhounds won’t be making the trip. They forfeited the game Tuesday.

“They don’t have enough (players) to play,” said Tiftarea athletic director Tim Hathcock.

Notre Dame has 20 players listed on its online roster, but Hathcock said the Irish were down to about 12, with a handful banged up.

Tiftarea attempted to salvage the game with Notre Dame, said head coach Erik Soliday.

“We told them we’d just play our ninth graders,” Soliday said.

However, Notre Dame and head coach Brennen Booth did not want to risk that, either.

Notre Dame informed Tiftarea of the decision not to play Tuesday morning. With only four days to go before the Panthers were scheduled to play, both Soliday and Hathcock said they were not able to find another opponent.

“I hate it for these kids,” Soliday said, adding he had expected to play many of his younger athletes.

Notre Dame was 0-6 on the season, having scored a total of 40 points, including a 41-10 loss to Deerfield-Windsor last week. The Irish Wolfhounds were being outscored by an average of 43-7 in each game. This is their full season as a varsity program.

Tiftarea rolled to its fifth consecutive win last Friday with a 34-0 decision against Valwood.

Homecoming festivities will continue, said Hathcock.

On Facebook, Tiftarea Academy announced that dress up days will continue. Hathcock said the homecoming court would be announced and a homecoming queen named Friday at 8 p.m. at The Panther Pit. No admission will be charged. The homecoming dance will also take place Friday night.

Notre Dame will be Tiftarea’s first cancellation of a game since 2015. Crisp Academy similarly did not have enough players for the 2015 opener. However, that game was not considered a forfeit by the GISA.

“It is what it is,” said Soliday. “We’ll start preparing for our next game.”

Soliday said he would like to see Notre Dame be able to finish out its season. The Irish Wolfhounds’ remaining games are all against area schools.

Tiftarea’s next opponent will be Heritage School, a contest that will be played at Newnan. Heritage (6-1) is also off this week.