Faked ’N Baked

Special teams trickery sparks Tornado rout

Brandon O’Neal
Staff Writer
Blount Press Row

Peyton Wall, pictured here earlier this season, lit Alcoa's fuse with a fake punt on Friday at Fulton. Photo by Brandon Shinn

Knoxville – A fake punt was needed. After that, Peyton Wall took over.

Leading 3-0 at the half, second-ranked Alcoa pulled away from Fulton for a 30-7 road win Friday night at Bob Black Field.

The Tornado victory sets up a showdown with top-ranked and defending state champion Christian Academy of Knoxville for the District 4AA championship next Friday at Goddard Field.

The game was nearly deadlocked at half, with Alcoa (8-1) leading Fulton (7-2) 3-0 in a close-run game. After a Wall fake punt set Alcoa up for its first touchdown, the Tornadoes never looked back.

A first half of mostly defense stopped both of these high-powered offenses. The only score came from an Austin Wallace field goal.

Fulton only managed to gain 38 total yards in the first half. Feature back Darly Rollins was virtually nonexistent with 1 total yard.

“It was a physical war there for a long time,” Alcoa coach Gary Rankin said. “We had some hard nosed kids and some kids that would stay and fight to the end.”

Ezekiel Koko fights for yardage against Webb earlier this season.

A Fulton punt pinned Alcoa back at their 5-yard line. The Tornadoes drove to the Fulton 35 where they were stopped in their tracks, or so you would think.

Wall set up in punt formation, called for the ball, picked his spot and launched a pass to Jordan Ferguson to the Fulton 14-yard line.

“I knew it was going to work,” Wall said. “Ferguson was going to go up and get it or get a pass interference.”

Wall would cap a game-changing 95-yard drive with a 6-yard run with 2:28 to go in the third quarter to make the Alcoa lead 10-0.

A Ferguson fumble recovery next gave Alcoa the ball at the Fulton 36-yard line, where it only took six plays to score. Wall rushed in for the touchdown from 3 yards with 6:30 left for a 17-0 lead.

On the ensuing Fulton drive, Ferguson would come up big again.

An attempt on fourth down from the Falcon 33-yard line was blown up by a streaking Ferguson, who tallied a sack to his stat sheet.

“I wanted it,” Ferguson said. “(Defensive coordinator Brian) Nix sent me on the blitz, and I went in there and got it.”

Three plays later, Jaquez Tyson’s 5-yard touchdown run put Alcoa up 24-0.

Kenny Dean elevates to make the grab against Loudon.

Kenny Dean broke early on a Falcon pass on the next series, intercepted the ball and took it to the house. The 17-yard pick-six put Alcoa’s second touchdown on the board in 12 seconds, opening the lead to 30-0.

Fulton’s last drive finally put the Falcons on the board. Xavier Hawkins finished the drive with a 15-yard touchdown run.

After a stagnant first half, both teams managed to tally some yards.

Rollins accounted for 62 of Fulton’s 147 second half yards on 12 carries.  Hawkins added 68 yards on four rushes.

Alcoa racked up 159 yards in the second half, finishing with 252 overall.