The temperature in the fourth quarter was a super muggy 85 degrees.
By the close of business, Alcoa had amassed nearly as many penalty yards as Gibbs had accumulated in yards from scrimmage.
None of it mattered, though. Micah Jones was that good.
The senior running back torched the Eagles for 195 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries, all while anchoring the Tornado defense from his safety position, and Alcoa routed Gibbs, 49-21, in the 2026 home opener.
Funny thing: It didn’t start out that way.
The Eagles gave the faithful a bit of a shock when they handed the 11-time defending state champion Tornadoes (3-0, 1-0 Region 2-4A) a 14-13 deficit after a quarter of play. A sluggish start looked all the more menacing as the penalties piled up.
Alcoa would absorb 121 yards worth on the night.
“I told (the Tornadoes) this was going to be a fight,” Alcoa coach Brian Nix said, “and I don’t think they believed it. At the end of the first quarter, we’re sitting here down 14-13 and I looked at everyone and I said, ‘I told you that’s what this is going to be.'”
Once the second quarter began, Jones, quarterback Thomas Manu and the rest of the Tornadoes had seen enough.
“When it’s hot, some of our players kind of complain and want to practice inside,” Jones said. “We know it’s not going to be like that on Friday nights. We have to practice how we’ll play this week.
“We just had to stay focused, just stay focused and move on to the next play.”
Manu, already with a scoring toss to tight end Aaron Heatherly to his credit, revved the Alcoa passing game. The talented Tornado playmaker finished his evening 13-of-20 passing for 158 yards and an addition touchdown to wideout and Georgia commitment Jamir Dean.
The super-quick quarterback tacked on six carries for 40 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
Kick returner Mason Laster dazzled the crowd with a weaving, cutting, 80-yard kickoff return for six not long before the half. Defensively, the Tornadoes were fully plugged in by that point.
Paced by linebacker Darius Sudderth and Jones, Alcoa’s stop unit got big nights from rush ends Jackson Walters and Jace Boyd. The pairing made life tough on Gibbs quarterback Keith Jones after the latter’s strong start.
The final score for the Eagles would come against Tornado reserves in the fourth.
Stefan Cooper is an award-winning sports journalist in Blount County, TN. Stefan has been writing about local sports for more than 25 years. In fact, he's writing stories today about the kids of players he used to write stories about. You'll spot him biking around town, hanging out at a coffee shop or Southland Books, or in his natural habitat: the sideline of the game.
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