A Hat For A Crown: Mitchell's three goals propel Alcoa to third straight district title

By Alan Yarbrough
of The Daily Times Staff

Alcoa forward Andrew Miller has yet to experience anything other than winning a district championship.

On Thursday, the junior made sure it stayed that way.

Utilizing a hat trick, Miller led the Tornadoes to their third consecutive District 3-AA championship with a 3-2 win against visiting Seymour.

"This is the first one (three consecutive district titles) we've ever done that I know of," Miller said. "It just feels great. It's great to be on a team that does it."

But it wasn't easy.

After Miller scored the first goal that deflected off of a defender in the 22nd minute, Seymour started to settle down and control the majority of the possession. In all, the Eagles had a 21-10 advantage in shots, including 9-6 on the goal. They also caught Alcoa offsides many times with a trap near midfield that negated the Tornadoes' athletic advantage.

Still, Alcoa kept its composure and took a 2-0 lead seven minutes into the second half when Miller buried a shot inside the 18-yard box.

Seymour, however, fought back with a penalty-kick goal from Carlos Lopez.

Again Miller responded. Finally getting by the offsides trap, he received a through ball from about 35 yards out and beat the keeper a few strides later.

"I just put it to work and it was a good run, good ball," Miller said.

Seymour did add a goal from Kris Kjellgren with two minutes remaining. From there, though, another shot on goal wasn't tallied.

"With Seymour, they know the last three times we've played it's been tied at the end of regulation," Alcoa coach Tom Gorman said. "We had to beat them in overtime last year. Luckily, we didn't go to overtime this year.

"Coming in, we knew we were going to have to play our best and get lucky sometimes, too."

Now, Alcoa will host the Christian Academy of Knoxville/Catholic loser on Tuesday at 7 p.m. with a chance to move past the first round of the region tournament for the first time in at least three years.