Mitchell leads Alcoa to District 3-AA tourney crown

By Alan Yarbrough
of The Daily Times Staff

Editor's Note: This story, which ran in Friday's sports section, incorrectly identified Alcoa soccer player Andrew Mitchell. The Daily Times is re-running it to correct the error.

Alcoa forward Andrew Mitchell 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, Mitchell led the Tornadoes to their third consecutive District 3-AA soccer tournament 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," Mitchell said. "It just feels great. It's great to be on a team that does it."

But it wasn't easy.

After Mitchell 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 Mitchell buried a shot inside the 18-yard box.

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

Again Mitchell 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," Mitchell 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 five-time defending state champ Christian Academy of Knoxville 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.