Sep. 8, 2012
from Staff Reports

KEYSER, W.Va. — After blowing hard, but not causing much damage in the first half, the Keyser Golden Tornado’s winds reached gale force in the second half to score 37 points and hand Fort Hill its worst loss in a decade, 51-22, Friday night at Alumni Field at Tornado Alley.

Keyser outgained Fort Hill 203 to 89 in total offense during the first half, but the resourceful Sentinels played the Tornado to a 14-14 tie over the first 24 minutes. That changed in the second when the Keyser offense wore down the Sentinels and began converting most of their drives into touchdowns.

Danny Fife, Austin Ravenscroft and Garrett Crites helped Keyser rush for 323 yards, but it was a play on special teams that was the spark the team was looking for.

Josh Coffman delivered maybe the biggest swing for the Golden Tornado when he blocked and recovered a Fort Hill punt in the end zone to make it 22-14 Keyser in the third quarter.

From that point on, it was almost all Keyser.

Ravenscroft scored the first of three straight touchdowns on a three-yard run with 5:37 left in the third, and found the end zone again on a nine-yard jaunt with 44 seconds left in the third to make it 36-14. He added a 28-yard run early in the fourth to push the lead to 44-14, before Crites finished off Keyser’s scoring with a run of 26 yards.

Ravenscroft finished with 61 yards on the ground while Crites added 70 more.

Fife, who was responsible for Keyser’s touchdown in the first quarter and the one in the second, finished with a team-high 108 yards.

Keyser’s defense played extremely consistent, limiting Fort Hill to nine first downs, about 90 yards of offense in each half and allowing a total of 191. It gave up 70 of those yards on one touchdown run by the Sentinels’ Zac Elbin.

Elbin led Fort Hill by rushing for 115 yards.

Devin Shreve had a five-yard touchdown in the second quarter for the Sentinels’ first points.

The Tornado defense was also very opportunistic, recovering three Fort Hill fumbles and picking off one pass. Conversely, Keyser committed two turnovers, one fumble and one interception.

Travis Bush caught a 10-yard pass from Hunter Squires for the Sentinels’ last touchdown.

The 51 points is the most Keyser has ever scored against Fort Hill, and the win is just its seventh in the series (37-7-1 all-time).

The Tornado’s point total is the most Fort Hill has allowed to any opponent since Musselman scored 48 in 2001, and it’s the first time in over 70 years that the Sentinels have yielded more than 50 points. During the 1937 season, the Sentinels allowed 56 points to Windber (Pa.) and 67 to Waynesboro. The only other time the Sentinels have had 50 points scored on them was during their inaugural season in 1936 when Windber scored 54 in Fort Hill’s very first football game.

Keyser (2-0) will try to make it 3-0 when it hosts Northern on Friday.

Fort Hill (1-1) looks to recover when it hosts MATHS on Friday.