By Kris Freeman
White House Football as published in The News Examiner

The White House Blue Devils ran into a violent windstorm in Alcoa Friday night, but with the weather perfect the stirring came at the hands of the Alcoa Tornadoes.

In the first-ever meeting of the two schools, the three-time defending champion in Class 2-A bolted to a 41-point halftime lead and never looked back, beating the Blue Devils 41-6 as the second half clock wound the game quickly to a close.

Future University of Kentucky Wildcat Randall Cobb led the Alcoa offense with six carries for 109 yards, including a 39-yard touchdown run, and 4-for-4 passing for 59 yards. Alcoa scored 21 points in the first quarter and then added 20 more in the second period as Jaron Toney scored all three times he touched the ball - runs of 8, 58 and 39 yards, respectively.

"Everything clicked for us in the first half and really, we only made one mistake and that was the missed PAT," said Alcoa coach Gary Rankin. "We played that half as well as we could play it and this was really a complete half for us. I did not expect us to come out and play that well, but it was a great first half."

"Overall, it was just a disappointing night," said White House coach Jeff Porter. "It was like an avalanche. We made a couple of nice drives in the first quarter and didn't get any points and they consistently made plays. It got out of hand in a hurry."

As the Tornadoes scored on a Troy Hodge one-yard run just six plays into the game, White House came firing back and marched down the field with authority. But the drive stalled at the Alcoa 15 on third down, and the Blue Devils' field-goal attempt of 32 yards by Matthew Gossett was blocked. Three plays later, Cobb was in from 39 yards away and the scoring train was rolling.

"We scored quickly and they put together a nice drive, but we made the play on third down and blocked the field goal," Rankin added. "You just don't know what would have happened if they score right there, but we realized they were going to have trouble with our speed on offense all night."

"If we could have come away with any points there it would be a positive," said Porter. "We were out-athleted tonight and they exposed us and did what they are good at doing."

White House was efficient moving the football with 45 plays for 210 yards, including almost 30 minutes of possession, but simply failed to keep the defense on the field as Alcoa scored 41 points in 17 plays and over 300 yards in the first half alone. The Tornadoes finished the game with 370 yards on just 28 plays, including 311 yards rushing on 24 carries. Toney led all players with 114 yards on five carries and three touchdowns.

Alcoa rebounded from a 42-14 loss to rival Maryville to improve to 2-1 for the season, while White House fell to 1-1 after last week's win over Portland helped to even the record.

This was nice to see after last week with a big loss to our rivals," Rankin said. "We had a great night, and great week of preparation. No one was moaning and groaning, but we just came out tonight and played well."

White House heads back home to face Springfield in non-region play, as the Blue Devils will welcome back the 1997 team and celebrate the 10th anniversary of the school's first state championship - the Class 3-A football crown. With all the festivities comes an athletic and familiar rival to Dewey H. Whitson Stadium hoping to spoil all the fun.

"Bottom line for us is this is our final seven days to get ready to play before region week starts in week four," Porter said. "We'll find out a lot about ourselves and how we are able to bounce back from this."

As for Friday, White House added a touchdown late when Bryan Dixon scrambled in from 26 yards away in the fourth quarter. Dixon led the Blue Devils with 17 carries for 85 yards and the lone score, but the extra point banged off the left post for a 41-6 final.

Trox Greenwade connected on 6-of-11 passes for 76 yards and one interception, completing three to Jeremy Barnes for 28 yards including a tip-toe catch on the visitor sideline.