Notre Dame committed the cardinal sin for underdogs. The Irish handed defending state champion Alcoa a pair of early touchdowns via turnovers and left themselves in an uphill battle to stay in the game Friday night at Finley Stadium.
In the end that battle was swayed by the Irish's struggle to contain Jaquez Tyson. The Tornadoes advanced again to a Class 3A state championship game with a 28-19 victory by ending Notre Dame's win streak at 12.
"You can't have turnovers against a team like this," Irish coach Charles Fant said. "If we could take away those turnovers, maybe we're the victors, and we overcame (mistakes). We just came up short."
The 5-foot-10, 230-pound Tyson, his Earl Campbell-esque legs pumping from opening kickoff to final gun, was the one who overcame. Time and again and whether first down or fourth, when Alcoa had to have yards, Tyson's No. 2 was the number that was called. What's amazing is that the senior's 268 rushing yards is not a personal best.
Notre Dame's Jared Andrews runs the ball past Alcoa's Lyron Edwards."I think I had a couple of games earlier this year that were in the 270s," the potential University of Tennessee at Chattanooga recruit said.
He did, however, set a career record for carries, rushing the ball 51 times. His previous season high was 50 touches with 49 carries in last year's state-title game.
"Great effort, great courage," assessed Alcoa coach Gary Rankin, who became the state's winningest coach with Friday's victory, "but you have to give a lot of credit to the offensive line as well."
Fant wasn't about to disagree, although he felt Tyson's churning was more important to the Alcoa effort.
"There's no question Tyson's the best back we have seen," the Notre Dame coach said. "Any time you can hand a guy the ball 20-30-40 times, it's incredible. Their line kept giving up just enough of a hole for him to keep moving."
The Tornadoes' Braxton Dockery almost personally handed his team a 14-0 lead, stripping the ball from a receiver and returning it 51 yards for their first score and then scooping up a fumble on the very next Notre Dame series and getting it inside the Irish's 25.
From there Tyson picked up the first of three touchdowns.
The Irish (12-2) made a flurrying late run, scoring 13 points in the final 23 seconds of the first half, the first on a 26-yard pass from Alex Darras to Auston Banks. Then after a personal foul (late hit to the head) gave them 15 plus yards on the kickoff, the Irish tried an onside kick that was recovered by Kealey Green. This time, with 0:18 left on the clock, Darras found a leaping Kareem Orr in the far corner of the end zone for a 35-yard TD.
"The kids could've given up, but they battled and fought back into it," Fant said.
They played a scoreless third quarter, but Alcoa finally punched in its fourth touchdown on Tyson's third scoring run (a 2-yarder) with 7:01 to play. Notre Dame cut it to 28-19 on a 16-yard pass from Darras to Orr, but the point-after kick was blocked.
"I thought (the referees) missed a call there on the block, and that was a big play with four minutes still to play," Fant said. "We might've recovered an onside kick, scored and gone for two and tied it up to force overtime."
Fant tried to point out that one of the Alcoa defenders jumped onto and then over a teammate to get the block, but after a conference with the back judge who did not make the call the coach was left shaking his head and muttering to himself, "How can you not see that play? How can you not make that call?"
Alcoa (13-1) ran out the clock inside Notre Dame's 10-yard line after the Irish's ensuing onside-kick attempt failed.
"Notre Dame is as explosive an offensive team as we've seen in years at this level," Rankin said. "They can explode on you in a heartbeat."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.