Unbeaten Alcoa routs Chargers

By Dave Link

Correspondent

ALCOA, Tenn. -- If the Alcoa High School football team was looking ahead Thursday night, that look was aimed at the McMinn Central end zone.

Senior tailback JaRon Toney rushed for 254 yards and four touchdowns on 19 carries as Alcoa beat McMinn Central 49-7 in a nondistrict game.

Now the Tornadoes can look to next week's showdown against Christian Academy of Knoxville for the District 4-AA championship. Each team is 4-0 in the league, while Alcoa is 9-0 overall and CAK is 8-0 with a game tonight.

"We haven't talked about next week much," Alcoa coach Gary Rankin said. "Our kids are pretty smart. They go about their business pretty well. You could tell by the way we played we weren't looking ahead."

McMinn Central (6-3) is ranked No. 8 in the state in Class 3A, while Alcoa is ranked No. 1.

"Alcoa is No. 1 for a reason," Chargers coach Josh Goodin said. "They don't do anything wrong. They're so danged disciplined and play hard from start to end."

Alcoa scored touchdowns on five of its seven possessions in the first half. Daniel Rockymore returned the opening kickoff 41 yards. On first down, Austin Tallant threw a 49-yard touchdown pass to Steven Isom.

"We knew what we were trying to do (on the opening play), and it worked better than we thought it would," Rankin said.

Toney, who had 154 yards and three touchdowns in the first half, scored on a 1-yard run for a 14-0 lead.

McMinn Central scored late in the first quarter when Josh Moss caught a 40-yard touchdown pass from Zack Rayl.

Alcoa fullback/linebacker Taharin Tyson took a hard hit late in the first quarter but stayed in the game for a couple of plays before heading to the bench for good. Rankin said Tyson didn't have a concussion and could have returned.

Toney scored on runs of 5 and 12 yards in the second quarter, and Tallant's 10-yard touchdown pass to tight end Tyler Robinson made it 35-7 at halftime.

Alcoa had 14 first downs and 380 total yards by halftime (282 rushing) to McMinn Central's three first downs and 72 total yards (6 rushing).

"It was really good blocking all around," Toney said. "They tried to change up some things, but our linemen caught on and kept it up."

Toney made the play of the game at the end of the third quarter when he took a handoff, broke into the open field and juked past a defender near midfield for an 81-yard touchdown run.