TJ wins a thriller

Oct 24, 2010
From Staff Reports

CUMBERLAND — Fort Hill was 45 seconds, and one yard away from a chance to knock off a 4A Thomas Johnson team, but the Patriots’ defense came up with the biggest stop of the night on fourth-and-one with their backs against the wall to beat the Sentinels 21-17 Saturday at Greenway Avenue Stadium.

Thomas Johnson got a 13-for-17 passing performance from Brian Chase, with Chase directing the Patriots out of many third down situations.

The Patriots pounded the ball into Fort Hill territory on the first drive of the night, but a big holding penalty put TJ over 20 yards to go for a first down. Brandon Berney cut the yardage in half with a 13-yard gain on third down, and Chase hit Zack Petrill for 23 yards on fourth-and-13 to give the Pats a fresh sets of downs inside the Sentinels’ 10.

Berney would lead TJ in rushing with 71 yards.

A Chase keeper from a yard out provided the first points with 6:23 left in the first. He would also finish with 141 yards through the air.

Dylan Clay got a big run for 23 yards on the Sentinels first play from scrimmage, but Fort Hill would be forced to punt three plays later. Clay would account for almost half of his team’s 221 yards of offense by rushing for 108 yards on 12 carries.

The Sentinels came up with a stop of their own on the next Thomas Johnson drive, but the TJ punt was muffed and recovered by the Pats around midfield.

Nico Johnson was a few inches from running almost 60 yards for a touchdown, but had to settle for a 24-yard gain after stepping out of bounds on the FH 32-yard line.

Berney took the ball down inside the 20, but TJ had a close pass in the back of the end zone called out of bounds follow a bad pitch. Fort Hill sacked Chase on third down to force a fourth-and-20, and the Sentinels got a turnover on downs after stopping a scrambling Chase.

The next Fort Hill drive was almost all Dylan and Garrett Clay as the Sentinels marched all the way into the Patriots 25. Eric Howser had a keeper around the end to get the Sentinels a third-and-short, and Dylan Clay gave them a first down at the TJ five-yard line.

Garrett Clay finished with 78 yards on the ground as he and his brother Dylan combined for 186 of Fort Hill’s 221 yards.

Dylan finished the drive on the next play by diving into the end zone to tie the score at 7-7 with 3:21 left. The drive took six and a half minutes and covered 82 yards. Fort Hill would have the ball for just over eight minutes during the first half.

The Patriots continued to be able to convert on third and long when Chase connected with Kerry Stinson for a first down on third-and-21 from deep in their own territory.

Chase found Rich Anderson on a pass to the 38, and then Johnson to the 31 to push further into Fort Hill’s side of the field.

On third-and-eight, the Patriots completed a pass into the end zone, but it was called back for an illegal man downfield. The final play of the half got interesting when the Patriots fumbled it to the Sentinels, who fumbled it back to TJ as time expired. Both teams were also assessed with personal foul penalties.

Fort Hill was forced to punt on its first possession of the second half, but the Pats fumbled the punt return and the Sentinels' Robert Vincent recovered at the TJ eight-yard line.

The Sentinels ran the ball down to the four, but Howser was sacked on the five to create a fourth-and-goal and Cullin Brown netted a 22-yard field goal to take a 10-7 lead at 6:20 of the third quarter.

Chase hit Anderson for 22 yards on third-and-13 as the Patriots continued to convert on long yardage situations. The two got together again on first down for another big pickup that brought the ball down to the Fort Hill red zone.

Chase then found Eric Gross with a pass to take the ball to the one, but an illegal procedure penalty backed the Pats up to the six. Thomas Johnson finished the evening being penalized 12 times for 80 yards.

After recovering its own fumble on first down, Anderson finished the TJ drive with 53 seconds left in the third with a three-yard touchdown on second.

After the teams exchanged punts on the next two drives Thomas Johnson was setup to punt again when a fumbled snap was scooped up by Fort Hill’s Caleb Miller and taken six yards for the touchdown and a 17-14 Sentinels lead.

Getting the ball with just under eight minutes to play, the Patriots were able to eat almost five minutes off the clock on its next drive. Doug Sponyoe broke a 17-yard run to create some space, and Chase had to use his legs for a 12-yard run.

Sponyoe gave the lead back to the Pats on a 10-yard run with 3:21 remaining.

Dylan Clay got loose for a long run on the first play of the Sentinels final drive that put Fort Hill past the 50. Garrett Clay took the ball to the 15 with 1:30 left, and called a time-out on fourth-and-one at the 14 with 45 seconds remaining.

The Sentinels elected to try a sneak, but was stopped short on the spot and turned the ball over on downs.

Fort Hills falls to 5-3, and stays at home to play Mountain Ridge on Friday. Thomas Johnson is now 5-3, and is at Linganore on Friday.