Late TD pass stuns FH, 14-10

Sep 18, 2010
by Mike Mathews

CUMBERLAND — Needing a touchdown and needing it fast, Mount St. Joseph coach Blake Henry turned to Craig Constabile, who didn’t disappoint.

Constabile, a junior who had played only briefly in the first half, fired a perfect strike to Angelo Deshields in the corner of the end zone with just 1:22 to play to send the Gaels of Baltimore to a 14-10 win over Fort Hill Friday night at Greenway Avenue Stadium.

The touchdown gave the Gaels (3-0) their only lead of the night, and two plays later Tyler Rill picked off a pass to end a frustrating fourth quarter for Fort Hill (2-1), which failed on two fourth-and-ones and an interception in the final 10 minutes.

Shawn Metheny, who had all but four of Fort Hill’s 139 yards of offense in the first half, ran 28 times for 180 yards and scored the Sentinels touchdown on a 79-yard dash in the second quarter.

Mount St. Joseph used two quarterbacks, but Samuel Benjamin got most of the work and ran 23 times for 87 yards. Constabile, the passer of the two, played the final six minutes of the first half. He returned with with his team down 10-7 with only 2:37 to go.

Constabile completed a big 18-yard pass to Deshields on a third-and-10 to keep the drive alive. Five plays later, he hit Deshields again for the 23-yard touchdown.

“It was all guts,’’ Henry said of Constabile. “Usually a high school kid can’t come in and have the composure to do that. I trusted him and he made the plays when he needed to.”

Deshields (4 catches, 106 yards) had gotten behind the Fort Hill secondary several times. One went for 55 yards in the first half. Two others fell incomplete.

“On the touchdown we faked the zone, which we hadn’t done all night, and threw the same route,’’ Henry said. “We tried to suck the corner in a bit. This is huge for us. I don’t think we’ve ever come up here and beaten a team like this with the tradition like this. I don’t think anyone back home expected us to come back with a win.”

The winning drive consisted of eight plays and began at the Gaels 48 after Mount St. Joseph’s penetration stopped Metheny on fourth-and-inches with 2:37 to go. The Gaels had stopped the Sentinels on fourth-and-one from the MSJ eight earlier in the quarter.

“We wanted to keep the drive alive, and we should be able to convert fourth-and-inches,’’ Fort Hill coach Todd Appel said. “I didn’t like the spot one bit, but that’s what you have to deal with. We just came up short.

“We could have punted and you could second guess. A lot of people who don’t make decisions always make the right one. We get the yard and we keep the drive alive and run out the clock, and we don’t have to defend them anymore.”

Defending was difficult because of the Gaels talented quarterback tandem. But the Sentinels passed the test all evening until the late touchdown. Had not two defenders collided, the Sentinels likely would have had an interception five plays before the winning score.

“Our team played hard,’’ said Appel. “We have a scrappy group of kids who played both sides of the ball against a team that probably had two kids who played both ways.

“We had some kids banged up at the start of the game who didn’t play and had some during the game get banged up, but our kids fought hard and I’m very proud of them.”

Already a bit thin at the start, Wesley Wills went out with an injury and Appel said Nick Greise may have suffered a broken wrist.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Sentinels grabbed the lead when Metheny took a pitch and raced 79 yards for the touchdown with 8:06 left in the half.

“Shawn carries the load. And as a two-way player, he has to play defensive tackle for us, too,’’ said Appel. “It’s tough for Shawn. He breaks off an 80-yard run and we ask him to go right back out and play on the other side of the ball, too.”

A lost fumble set up Mount St. Joseph’s first touchdown, a 10-yard run by Jeffrey Matthews Jr., that tied it 7-7 with 5:23 to go. It was the first points Fort Hill’s defense had allowed this year.

The Sentinels went up 10-7 when Philip Giugliano booted a 27-yard field goal with eight-tenths of a second left in the half. The field goal was set up by the defense and a fumble recovery by Zach Cohen at the Gaels 24.

Fort Hill plays at Martinsburg on Friday.