The Alcoa Tornadoes faced the Westview Chargers in the TSSAA Class 3A state championship game on Davenport Field at Finley Stadium on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Alcoa won 40-21. (Photo by Danny Parker)
BY JESSE SMITHEY
CHATTANOOGA — You can call it a decade of dominance. But, really, it has been oh-so much more.
In its final season in 3A, the Alcoa Football program punctuated its 16-year stay in the classification with a 10th consecutive state championship, knocking off previously unbeaten Westview, 40-21, on Friday afternoon in the BlueCross Bowl at Finley Stadium in downtown Chattanooga.
The Tornadoes’ 10 in a row extends its TSSAA record, and second place also belongs to Alcoa, when it won seven in a row from 2004-2010.
On Friday, Alcoa won its 23rd all-time state football championship, which is tops in the state. Maryville is second with 17.
All told, Alcoa won 13 Class 3A state titles from 2009-2024. CAK (2011-12) and CPA (2014) were the only other programs that got gold-ball trophies in 3A during that span. Alcoa will move into 4A next fall.
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THE MVP, THE STATS, ETC…
Alcoa senior quarterback Eli Graf won game MVP honors for the second year in a row. The Mr. Football finalist rushed 21 times for 225 yards and two touchdowns. He also passed for 39 yards and a touchdown.
Running back Micah Jones had 21 carries for 76 yards and three rushing touchdowns.
Eli Owens had a TD catch. But he impacted the game on defense more with eight tackles, a half sack, 2.5 tackles for loss, a QB hurry and pass breakup.
Westview entered with a prolific offense that averaged 54.7 points per game and that was led by freshman QB sensation Graham Simpson, the son of UT-Martin head coach Jason Simpson and brother of Alabama QB Ty Simpson.
Graham Simpson threw 43 touchdowns with no interceptions in the regular season. And he passed for 620 yards and eight touchdowns in a Week 11 win over Covington.
Alcoa limited the quarterback wunderkind and Mr. Football finalist to 8-for-12 passing for 76 yards in the first half en route to a 20-point halftime lead. Simpson finished 18-of-24 passing for 265 yards and a touchdown, which came in the final two minutes of play.
“I’m not going to lie to you; we were pissed,” Owens said. “We were fed up with this propaganda of how good their offense was and how’d they would score 50 points on our defense. That is not a shot at Westview. They have a great team. They have a great offense. They scored 20 points on us, which is something some teams couldn’t do.
“But with the competition we’ve played, that set us up for games like this, when things get tough and, hopefully, usually we’ll prevail.”
HOW THE GAME WAS WON
The Tornadoes (13-1) imposed its will Friday from the opening minutes and eventually took a 27-7 lead to the half.
Owens helped force a punt in Westview’s initial possession thanks to two tackles for loss by the Michigan signee. Once on offense, Graf and Jones took to the ground, as the two combined for eight carries for 68 yards in an eight-play, 68-yard drive that yielded a 7-0 Alcoa lead with 5:59 remaining in the first.
Jones capped the march with the 7-yard scoring run. Graf had four carries for 38 yards in the drive.
After Alcoa stopped Westview (14-1) on downs at the Westview 45 on the Chargers’ next possession, Alcoa kept to the ground. Alcoa sophomore Jermon Bishop (6-0, 240) dropped in on the run-game party and carried three times for 21 yards to get Alcoa near the red zone. Following a Westview penalty (defensive holding during an Alcoa pass attempt), Graf darted eight yards to the Westview 5.
From there, Jones trotted in for a 5-yard score at the 2:19 mark.
Though the PAT failed, Alcoa led 13-0 on 13 carries for 102 yards — an no official pass attempts.
“We wanted to come out early and get the lead — whatever that took,” Alcoa coach Brian Nix said. “Then we felt like if we could get the lead, then try to keep that (Westview) offense on the sideline.”
Westview tried to answer with a flea-flicker, trick-play pass attempt on third down with 38 seconds left in the first. But it fell woefully incomplete down near Alcoa 30.
Westview’s punter then shanked his punt.
Alcoa took over at the Westview 40, and Graf ultimately made Westview pay for its special teams gaffe with a 2-yard touchdown run with 6:19 left in the half.
The Chargers didn’t cross midfield against Alcoa until the 6:01 mark of the second quarter. It got into the red zone thanks to a well-timed, fourth-down strike across the middle for 21 yards. Westview capitalized on its lone scoring opportunity of the half, cutting their deficit to 20-7 on a short-yardage TD run with 3:02 remaining in the second quarter.
But Westview couldn’t hold down Alcoa. On fourth-and-7 from the Westview 41, Graf took a fake-punt keeper and ran 32 yards to the Westview 9. Jones cashed in on the drive’s second chance with a 4-yard touchdown run with 20 seconds left in the half.
AFTER THE BREAK
Alcoa had an opportunity to all but put Westview away, as the Tornadoes had the ball to open the second half. But a fourth-down pass into the end zone from Alcoa fell incomplete. Westview took advantage of Alcoa’s blown chance and turned it into points. Westview’s 1-yard touchdown run with 5:01 left in the third trimmed their deficit to 27-14.
Westview then stopped Alcoa on fourth-and-goal from the 1 with 9:05 let to play, keeping hope alive of a comeback.
The Chargers pulled off more fourth-down magic on offense, converting a fourth-down pass from its own 5-yard line for 19 yards to avoid having to punt out of its end zone.
Just a couple plays later, though, Alcoa stripped the ball loose from a scrambling Simpson and recovered the ball at the Chargers’ 24 with 5:38 to go.
That’s when the moments happened for Graf and Owens that they’ll remember for a lifetime.
Graf threw a 6-yard touchdown strike to Owens with 2:07 to play for a 34-14 lead.
“It was great. Throughout my career, I haven’t scored in a big game. Before this game right here, I had not scored in a Maryville game, a West game, a state championship,” Owens said. “When they called that play over here during that timeout, they said, ‘Be you.’ I was like, ‘Don’t get that in my head. Don’t mess me up.’
“But that’s all Mr. Football, Eli Graf. He gave me a perfect ball. I caught it and scored. And he got to go do his dancey dance in the end zone a couple of plays later.”
Graf capped off his masterful performance and season with a 49-yard touchdown run — his final offensive play in high school — with 1:17 to go, giving Alcoa a 40-21 advantage.
“Not a lot of people get to leave the field a winner in their last high school game ever,” Graf said. “I’m so blessed and fortunate to be at a school like this where we can end my senior season a winner in the state tournament.”