Nov. 9, 2013
by Mike Mathews

CUMBERLAND — Neither a slow start, three early turnovers nor six minutes of possession time in the first half were going to stop the Fort Hill Sentinels from a sixth straight Homecoming game victory.

Ty Johnson made sure of it.

The speedy junior scored a touchdown on offense, defense and special teams and the Sentinels, after a bit of a shaky start, rolled past Allegany 46-20 on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Greenway Avenue Stadium.

Johnson returned the opening kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown, scored on a 73-yard dash and a 45-yard interception return in the second quarter and was named the Offensive Player of the Game as the Sentinels wrapped up their regular season 10-0.

The kickoff return put Fort Hill up 7-0 just 13 seconds into the 88th meeting between the City rivals. The 73-yard run put the Sentinels ahead for good, 14-12, with 6:42 left in the half, and the interception return enabled the Fort Hill fans to breathe a little easier at the half, up 21-12.

“Ty is fast ... he’s the fastest kid in the area and was the No. 2 seed at the state track meet last year,’’ said Fort Hill coach Todd Appel. “He’s super fast, and we wanted to give him the ball a little bit today.

“Throughout the season he really hasn’t touched the ball much. He does have a 14-yard per carry average, and you want to keep guys like that healthy. Today I thought was a good day for Ty to break out, to have a real breakout game.”

Johnson, who had 45 carries and 649 rushing yards the first nine games, ran for 127 yards on only six carries. Dekarai Darr had 14 carries for 126 yards and Hunter Squires completed five passes for 100 yards as the Sentinels piled up 432 yards total.

Cody Dolly, who had a game-high 10 tackles and led the Fort Hill defense that limited Allegany to 50 yards of offense in the middle two periods, was the Defensive Player of the Game. Rashaan Shives and Joe Mundella had seven tackles for Fort Hill.

Kirk Robinette led Allegany with 17 carries and 50 yards rushing, a 44-yard pass, and also had a team-high seven tackles before leaving the game with an injury in the second half.

Johnson’s kickoff return started the game with a bang for Fort Hill but was one of few positives for the Sentinels in the first quarter, and the Campers dominated the majority of the half.

After an exchange of punts, Robinette hit Darion Lopez on a pass of 44 yards to the Fort Hill 22, and Trenton Eirich had 12- and nine-yard runs around the right end, scoring on the nine-yarder, with 6:17 left in the period.

A low snap led to the kick for conversion to fail but later, the Campers, after pinning the Sentinels at their own seven with a 43-yard punt by Nate Condor, took over when Jordan Shook pounced on a Darr fumble at the six. Three plays later, Eirich scored again on a four-yard run around the right end with 37 seconds left in the quarter.

Allegany led on the scoreboard, 12-7, and the stat sheet, 103 yards to 15 after the first quarter, and Shook and Lopez recovered two more Fort Hill fumbles in the second.

“The game started on a real high for us with Ty’s kickoff return, and then once they got the ball it became frustrating because they were moving the ball against us with a new scheme that they had,’’ said Appel. “We knew they were going to throw the kitchen sink at us. It was a matter of how quick or how soon we could make our adjustments. It took a little while, but we made them. Our coaching staff did a great job.”

While the defensive adjustments were being worked out, Johnson and the offense put the Sentinels on top to stay, 14-12, with the 73-yard run at 6:42. Two plays later, Johnson picked off an Eirich pass and returned it 45 yards for a 21-12 lead 5:26 before halftime.

The touchdowns began a string of 39 straight points, which moved a 12-7 Allegany lead to a 46-12 Fort Hill cushion after a pass from Squires to Ryan Shives went for a 70-yard touchdown with 7:55 to go in the fourth.

“Things did not go our way right off the bat with the kickoff return for a touchdown, but our guys hung in there and came back and scored two touchdowns,” said Allegany head coach Tom Preaskorn. “Early on, we were able to force and capitalize on some turnovers, but when you’re playing a great team like Fort Hill it’s hard to recover when you give up a touchdown on a kickoff and an interception.

“One of the big differences was that their skill players broke the long touchdowns on us. We knew we couldn’t give up big plays like that. The long touchdown run was probably the turning point of the game.”

Frustrating for Allegany was that the Campers led in offensive plays (43-18), possession time (17:36 to 6:24), and takeaways (3-0) in the first half but trailed by nine points on the scoreboard.

The tide began to turn late in the second quarter when the Sentinels defense rose to stop Allegany after the Campers had a first down at the Fort Hill 14. The big play was Brennan Carlin’s 15-yard sack of Eirich, which was followed by three incomplete passes.

“I came to the outside and I saw Trenton coming and went for his legs and all of a sudden I heard the crowd roar,’’ said Carlin. “I looked down and saw he was down. It really pumped me up and got me going and I was ready for some more.”

The second half was more of the same as the Sentinels outgained Allegany 300-98 and scored on their first four possessions. Barnes scored first, making a fine catch of a pitch near the line of scrimmage and running 18 yards to make it 29-12 midway through the third period.

“My line blocked very good and I just saw the hole to the outside, cut, and scored,’’ said Barnes, who had recovered a fumble to keep the drive going a few plays earlier, and picked off a pass in the fourth quarter to set up the 70-yard touchdown pass to Shives.

“We forgot about our (first-half) mistakes, came out here and drove down the field, scored a couple of times and came out with the W,’’ Barnes said about the differences in the halves.

“Allegany came out really strong and really hard. They were playing for a playoff spot and they played with a lot of heart and intensity,” Carlin said. “Defensively, we came up with a lot of big stops. We pulled our heads out of our butts and came out with some fire and put some heart into it,” he said of the second half.

Chris King kicked a 31-yard field goal and Darr dashed 65 yards for Fort Hill’s other second-half points. Allegany reached the end zone on its final possession, with Lopez scoring on a 12-yard run.

The loss leaves Allegany at 5-5 and out of the playoffs but it wasn’t because of a lack of effort, according to Preaskorn.

“The kids played their guts out and I’m really proud of the way they played and the heart they showed,” he said. “They laid it on the line today and have been a pleasure to coach all year.”

Fort Hill will host Manchester Valley on Friday, at 7 p.m., in a Class 1A West Region semifinal.

“It feels great to be 10-0. We’ve been here before, though,” said Appel. “We’ve got to do something a little different than we’ve done in the past and win a state championship. We’ve got to work on things, make everything fresh and new and bond together in this run. It’s great to be 10-0 but we’d like to be 14-0. That’s really the only other option now. You lose one, you’re done. We want to be undefeated at the end of the year.”