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Alcoa assistant coach Jason Adams puffed his cheeks and exhaled.

Tornado wideout Sam Thompson, among the school's most decorated student-athletes on the field and in the classroom, this time couldn't fight back tears.

Maryville had beaten Alcoa, 20-13, for its eighth straight win in the 5-mile rivalry. Thompson had played about as many snaps as anyone on either sideline, and the easiest thing in the moments following the bitter defeat Friday night was simply to let his emotions flow.

"There's so much emotion wrapped up in this game," said the senior wideout and classroom standout. "Maryville wins and they win and they win, and we finally have a shot to beat them. (My) last year, your senior year, and we lay it on the line and come up short. It's a hard thing to take.

"But it's true what they say: hard work doesn't guarantee success; it's just an opportunity for success."

Perhaps what most bothered the Tornadoes were the opportunities they felt they had left on the trampled Shields Stadium turf, where Maryville forged its winning streak to an astounding 62 games. Maryville fumbled a couple of times, but it kept possession. Then, the Rebels nearly had a late pass intercepted at midfield, but it fell to the turf.

"I think they always do learn from this, but it's just a shame that our kids work so hard and then have to lose this dang game," said Alcoa defensive coordinator Brian Nix, whose unit yielded just two touchdowns but watched the Rebels consume more than 26 minutes of clock. "This is one of the top programs in the country. Talent-wise, I don't know what teams in Miami and Houston are like, but program-wise, it's as good as anybody. We had our chances to win the game, and that's what I'm proud of. That's all you can ask for."

Indeed, Alcoa (1-1), which seized a 7-0 lead with a first-possession touchdown, damaged its bid for its first win over the Rebels since a goal-line stand in 2000 with untimely penalties, two second-quarter turnovers inside the final five minutes of the half and mental breakdowns.

"I'm proud of the kids' effort," Nix said. "I don't want to make an excuse because that's a great program, great players coached great. But we're just outmanned from the get-go. Our kids just come out and fight, and I hate the pain on our kids' faces. It seems like every year they lose to these guys that are 2 miles away, and that's so hard on our kids. They've worked hard, prepared hard and they played hard. But we always tell them, when you're playing hard, you've got to play disciplined."

Maryville set up its go-ahead field goal with a wide-receiver throwback pass from Zane Winders to Thomas Shuler. Then, the Rebels scored the game-winning touchdown on a Philip Juhlin pass back across the field to a wide-open Buddy Jones, who cradled the ball as he dropped to the turf in the end zone.

"We played hard. We didn't play smart at times," Alcoa coach Gary Rankin said. "They hit us on a couple of those special plays that we had worked on, and that was the most disappointing thing. We worked those things, and we just didn't execute. They were better than us tonight.

"We fought them and fought them a long time. The last drive that we went down and tied it up on them, that was a gut-check drive. It was a tough, hard, physical drive, and our kids did the things you want to see out of your ball club."

While the painful loss stung deeply in the tear-filled moments after the final horn, Nix felt assured the Tornadoes would improve from it.

"Hopefully, we take every positive away from this game," Nix said. "I think when they had the ball going in and we stopped them, drive length of the field and stick it in and score, that says a lot about our kids. They will keep fighting.

"We always say football's a game of downs, and at the end, we were one down away from tying the game. I think our kids believed that. That makes me proud of them. We don't have a quitter on this team."