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MURFREESBORO -- The Alcoa High School football team squeezed together on the frozen artificial turf at Middle Tennessee State University's Floyd Stadium for what's becoming an annual group picture.

Each player held up five fingers. A few decided to include a sixth.

In the midst of an unprecedented streak of state championships, it's never too early for the Tornadoes to start counting ahead.

Alcoa claimed a record-setting fifth consecutive state title Friday night, using a pair of familiar trick plays and an opportunistic offense to grind out a 28-14 victory over previously unbeaten Milan in the Class 2A BlueCross Bowl.

With their sixth state title since 2000, the top-ranked Tornadoes (14-1) became the first school in state history to win five consecutive football championships in any classification.

"It's just an unbelievable run," said third-year Alcoa coach Gary Rankin, now a seven-time state champion as a head coach. "I don't know if we're the best-coached team, but there's nobody that works any harder than we do."

County rival Maryville (14-0) will get a chance to match the Tornadoes' title run when it plays for its fifth straight title in the Class 4A championship game today at 4:30 p.m. against Hillsboro (12-2).

"It's just amazing," said Alcoa junior tailback Jaron Toney, who rushed for 104 yards and a touchdown and threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Robinson in the first quarter to earn the game's offensive most valuable player award.

"Five in a row, ain't nobody done that in the state yet. They might do it (today), but hey, we got to it first."

Tornadoes senior quarterback Chase James added a 1-yard touchdown run just before halftime and a back-breaking, 79-yard punt return for a touchdown early in the third quarter on a reverse from Daniel Cline.

It was all Alcoa needed to make up for a surprising shortage of offense in a low-scoring, field-position battle between previously high-scoring juggernauts.

"This means a lot to us," said James, who completed only 2 of 5 passes for 15 yards and rushed for minus-1 yard on eight carries. "It's been our goal since we've been working out in the summer, to go out here and win our fifth in a row, and make state history for the second year in a row."

The Tornadoes built an early lead that grew to 21-0 just after halftime, but the Bulldogs didn't go down quietly.

Sophomore defensive end Christian Coleman blocked a punt by Alcoa senior Sam Thompson and returned it 30 yards for Milan's first touchdown with 6:32 left in the third quarter.

Toney pushed Alcoa's advantage to 28-7 on a 7-yard scoring run with 1:23 left in the third quarter, but Bulldogs quarterback Justin Coleman plowed into the end zone on a 2-yard run with 4:08 remaining in the game.

Milan drove into Alcoa territory one last time after forcing a three-and-out with 3:03 left.

Thompson finally sealed the win by intercepting Coleman with 1:18 remaining on a pass that was knocked loose from receiver Tristian Peoples with a jarring hit by sophomore safety Austin Tallent.

Senior linebacker Jalik Toney also intercepted a pass late in the third quarter and recovered a second-quarter fumble that led to James' 1-yard run with 26.9 seconds left before halftime.

The Tornadoes, who scored 42.5 points per game on their march to the title game, finished with 172 yards of total offense. The Bulldogs, who had averaged 40.5 points, had only 135 yards.

"That's unbelievable," Alcoa defensive coordinator Brian Nix said. "We only gave up one touchdown on defense, and that was near the end. It goes to our kids. The fact that we held them to a touchdown, that's not coaching.

"We talked to our kids about want-to -- who's going to have that want-to to win this championship -- and our kids had great want-to. I'm proud of them."

The Tornadoes stopped celebrating after the game long enough to watch Thompson take a can of gold spray paint and add the finishing touch to a banner spread across the turf.

He painted a gold triangle at the top of a pyramid. It was the latest of Nix's postseason motivational ploys, his own version of legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden's "Pyramid of Excellence."

Alcoa, as usual, ended up at the top.

"I've had it all playoffs long up in the locker room with a gold can of spray paint next to it," Nix said of the banner. "That's what we were working toward, to get to the point where you get to spray-paint the top gold. That was motivation.

"I'm running out of stuff. That's a good problem to have."