Alcoa 28, White House 3 (9/5/08)

The White House Blue Devils welcomed the perfect storm to Dewey H. Whitson Stadium Friday night for the home opener of the 2008 season, and left in its wake was a 28-3 loss to the Alcoa Tornadoes.

The whirlwind from Alcoa was spun between a driving rain storm and a stiff breeze, and it was White House pinned against the wall to the tune of four consecutive long scoring drives in the opening half. Matthew Gossett’s 34-yard field goal at the game’s final horn was the only points in a frustrating night for the Blue Devils.

Jaron Toney rushed 13 times for 106 yards and two first quarter touchdowns, and made the lead 28-0 at the intermission with a 12-yard halfback pass to a wide-open Tyler Robinson. Alcoa (2-1) ran 31 plays for 248 yards on its first four drives, none shorter than seven plays.

“We were planning on spreading it out a little bit, and doing some things to utilize our speed, but the weather set in,” said Alcoa coach Gary Rankin. “We think we are a pretty physical football team and we had four really good, hard-nosed physical drives in the first half.”

The Blue Devils (1-1) were the opposite, with DeMarqus Payne rushing for a first down on the first offensive play of the game, followed by four straight three-and-out series. White House had 13 plays for 19 yards at the intermission before finishing with 92 yards for the game on the heels of a fourth quarter scoring drive.

Junior quarterback Trox Greenwade missed on all but 3-of-12 passes for just 35 yards and was sacked twice by a pressuring Tornado defense. Chase James and Toney combined for 3-of-3 passing for Alcoa, two of which going for scores including a 31-yard strike from James to Brother Walker in the second quarter to make it a 21-0 game.

“I think there are some things we wanted to do that we couldn’t do because of the weather, but the fact is they are a better football team and they dominated us,” White House coach Jeff Porter said. “They were better up front, they were more physical than we are and that’s why they are a good football team.”

In a weather-aided, sloppy affair, both teams were surprisingly stingy with the football. Each team bobbled the pigskin three times, but all six were recovered by the same team that fumbled – resulting in no turnovers for the entire contest.

White House simply could not match the rhythm and efficiency of the Alcoa offense, just 3-of-11 on third down and gaining barely over two yards per play for the duration of the game. The Blue Devils held the football for just 19 minutes, while Alcoa churned 49 plays for 322 yards and only punted once. That punt came following a fourth down stop in Blue Devil territory by the White House defense, as Alcoa failed to score in the second half.

“I thought the weather would be in their favor a little bit because I know what they like to do,” said Rankin, “but I was very proud of our kids. We ran it in there and threw it very little and this was very good for our football team.

“It was a sloppy night, but we certainly didn’t play sloppy. We didn’t lose any fumbles, have any turnovers, all our snaps and extra points were good. I thought we played well considering the conditions. Football is a little different than other sports because sometimes you have to adjust to the weather and I was very proud of our kids.”

For Coach Porter, the game fell apart not on effort, but on the inability to match the methodical pace of Rankin’s squad.

“I thought we played hard the entire game, I just didn’t think we always played as smart as we are capable of playing,” Porter explained. “We had some personnel mix-ups and there were some mental aspects of the game we have to strive to improve upon if we are going to be a better football team.

“The weather conditions had a lot to do with the dimension of big plays for both teams, but what they were able to do in the first half really wore us down. Football games are usually won at the line of scrimmage and that’s where they are very strong, and one of the areas we need to improve.”

White House opened the game with an unsuccessful onside kick and Alcoa marched eight plays and 48 yards with Toney cashing in the first touchdown. Derrick Brodus made the first of four PAT kicks for a 7-0 lead just three minutes into the game.

Toney capped an eight-play, 78-yard drive on the next possession with a 17-yard run, then James connected to Walker on the third series for 31 yards, making it 21-0 at the 9:11 point of the second period. Toney’s pass to Robinson came with 3:13 left in the first half and was the last points of the night for the Tornadoes.

With a 28-0 lead, Alcoa failed to score in the final two quarters while White House attempted to cross into paydirt. The final drive broke the shutout with an 11-play drive starting near midfield. Payne broke a 14-yard run to set up first and goal at the Alcoa six, but the defense held and forced the use of all three timeouts before Gossett’s kick as the horn sounded.

White House has only been shutout five times in 22 years under head coach Jeff Porter, and only once since 1995 (Station Camp, 2006).

Alcoa owns a 2-0 series advantage over White House having beaten the Blue Devils in 2007 at home, 41-6. Both teams are looking to continue postseason runs of success, with Alcoa searching for a fifth straight Class 2-A state championship, and White House reaching for its 17^th consecutive playoff appearance between classes 3-A and 4-A. They also have a state championship in that span in 1997.

Box Score (Final)

Alcoa vs White House (09-05-2008 at White House, TN)

Alcoa 14 14 0 0 28 Record: (2-1)

White House 0 0 0 3 3 Record: (1-1)

Scoring Summary:

1st 08:21 ALCOA - Jaron Toney 8 yd run (Derrick Brodus kick), 8-48 3:39, ALCOA 7 - WH 0

02:59 ALCOA - Jaron Toney 17 yd run (Derrick Brodus kick), 8-78 4:03, ALCOA 14 - WH 0

2nd 09:11 ALCOA - Brother Walker 31 yd pass from Chase James (Derrick Brodus kick), 7-66 3:56, ALCOA 21 - WH 0

03:13 ALCOA - Tyler Robinson 12 yd pass from Jaron Toney (Derrick Brodus kick), 8-67 4:02, ALCOA 28 - WH 0

4th 00:00 WH - Matthew Gossett 34 yd field goal, 11-32 3:52, ALCOA 28 - WH 3

ALCOA WH

FIRST DOWNS................... 18 7

RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............ 46-271 29-57

PASSING YDS (NET)............. 51 35

Passes Att-Comp-Int........... 3-3-0 12-3-0

TOTAL OFFENSE..... 49-322 41-92

Fumble Returns-Yards.......... 0-0 0-0

Punt Returns-Yards............ 0-0 1-6

Kickoff Returns-Yards......... 0-0 3-60

Interception Returns-Yards.... 0-0 0-0

Punts (Number-Avg)............ 1-28.0 6-37.8

Fumbles-Lost.................. 3-0 3-0

Penalties-Yards............... 3-15 3-25

Possession Time............... 28:15 19:45

Third-Down Conversions........ 4 of 9 3 of 11

Fourth-Down Conversions....... 2 of 3 1 of 2

Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 3-4 1-1

Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 2-12 2-14

RUSHING: Alcoa-Jaron Toney 13-106; Taharin Tyson 10-71; Cameron Foster 7-47;

Chase James 7-24; Daniel Warren 6-22; Dee Herbert 1-9; Jalik Toney 1-1;

Logan Sharp 1-minus 9. White House-DeMarqus Payne 11-45; Bryan Dixon 5-13;

Cody Allen 4-7; Matt Parker 1-minus 2; Trox Greenwade 8-minus 6.

PASSING: Alcoa-Chase James 2-2-0-39; Jaron Toney 1-1-0-12; Logan Sharp

0-0-0-0. White House-Trox Greenwade 3-12-0-35.

RECEIVING: Alcoa-Tyler Robinson 2-20; Brother Walker 1-31. White

House-DeMarqus Payne 1-18; DeMarrius Payne 1-10; Matt Parker 1-7.

INTERCEPTIONS: Alcoa-None. White House-None.

FUMBLES: Alcoa-Chase James 2-0; Jaron Toney 1-0. White House-Trox Greenwade

2-0; DeMarqus Payne 1-0.