The Stand

Harris, Stinnett, Owens shine as Alcoa holds

Alcoa senior and Michigan commitment Eli Owens had back-to-back stops for the Tornadoes on a goal-line stand in the win at Maryville. Photo by Wallace Bowden

By Stefan Cooper
Editor
Blount Press Row

Give Kenny Harris some of the credit.

The Alcoa junior deserves a big, huge chunk.

Maryville quarterback Will Jones lofted what looked a perfect screen pass in the direction of running back Price Davis, the latter poised for an easy walk-in touchdown. Alcoa linebackers Eli Owens and Darius Sudderth were both blitzing on fourth-and-goal at the Tornado 4-yard line. There was absolutely no one between Davis and the end zone.

Unfortunately for the Rebels, the play was already in trouble.

Harris, at left end, was quick with his rush, so much so he tied up Maryville’s Alex Boyd a little longer than Boyd probably would have liked. Davis, releasing into the pattern, never saw Boyd, struck his teammate and stumbled.

That’s when Cade Stinnett put the game away.

The Alcoa junior read his key — Davis — and stayed between Davis and Jones to make it a tough throw. Davis made a valiant attempt to adjust but finally lost his footing, the pass falling incomplete.

“It was a great play call,” Owens said. “They had screen to the backside into the boundary. (Alcoa) coach (Brian) Nix has been preaching all week, ‘When the game gets rough, they’re going to run it,’ and Cade Stinnett was right there to clean it up.

“He’s the reason we won this game.”

Final score at Shields Stadium: Alcoa 24, Maryville 17.

The latest renewal of one of the state’s oldest football rivalries had it all. Offensively, the Tornadoes got rushing touchdowns off 13 and 8 yards from quarterback and likely Mr. Football nominee Eli Graf. The Harding University commitment also had a lovely, 57-yard scoring strike to emerging Alcoa star JaColby Cooper.

The Tornadoes got a 33-yard field goal from placekicker Kyrin Tyson and a two-point conversion run from Graf following his go-ahead score with four minutes remaining.

Jones, a sophomore, had an equally impressive night for the Rebels. A beautifully-delivered 43-yard bomb to wideout Casey Cobble accounted for the first of Maryville’s two touchdowns. Jones rolled to his right and found tight end Hudson Jameson for the other from 6 yards.

Jamerson tacked on a 30-yard field goal to conclude the scoring for the Rebels with a minute to play in the third.

Both defenses delivered their share of highlights. Maryville’s David Crawford both caused an Alcoa fumble and recovered one. Sudderth forced the fumble, recovered by Tornado teammate Micah Jones, to set up Alcoa’s go-ahead drive.

Tornado tackle J.T. Turner collected his third blocked field goal of the season.

“That blocked field goal was a huge momentum changer,” Nix said. “J.T., that’s what he’s done, though. He was dominant on defense. He blocked that field goal and it gave us that little bit of juice and got us going.”

The goal-line stand was the thing, though.

On first-and-goal from the 8, Stinnett snaked through the Maryville line to make the stop on Davis at the 4. Owens raced into the Rebel backfield from the left side on second down to drop Davis for no gain. On third-and goal, the Michigan commitment did it again, this time collecting Davis with a burst from the right side.

On fourth down, Alcoa had Stinnett to win it, Harris with the assist.

“It’s the best feeling,” Graf said. “It’s something I’ve been dreaming of since middle school. You come to Alcoa, you want to be the starting quarterback your senior year and beat Maryville. It’s just a dream come true.”