Jan 20, 2014
by Mike Burke - Cumberland Times-News

CUMBERLAND — Just as they won them all during the season, the Maryland 1A state champion Fort Hill Sentinels have won them all in the postseason, sweeping all four of the 2013 area high school football awards.

Ty Johnson, the dynamic running back and defensive back for the Sentinels, will be the recipient of the Cumberland Times-News Area Player of the Year Award, while fullback Dekarai Darr will receive the Morton W. Peskin Sr. Memorial Award as the Offensive Player of the Year. Linebacker Cody Dolly is the Pepsi-Cola Defensive Player of the Year and head coach Todd Appel is the Dapper Dan Golden Helmet Coach of the Year.

The four Sentinels will receive their awards at the 66th Dapper Dan Awards Banquet Saturday, Jan. 25, 4 p.m., at the Ali Ghan Shrine Club.

Ty Johnson

Ty Johnson, the 5-11, 170-pound junior running back and defensive back with blazing speed, was a difference maker on offense, defense and special teams. He returned the opening kickoff of the annual Homecoming Game 88 yards for a touchdown to set off a spectacular five-game run that helped carry the Sentinels to the title. Having entered the Homecoming Game with 649 yards rushing through nine games, with an average of 14.4 yards per carry, he would conclude his five-game postseason surge by nearly doubling his rushing yardage to 1,254 yards and increase his yards-per-carry average three full yards to 17.4.

“I don’t know that anybody in our area has had a stretch run in the playoffs the way Ty Johnson did, and that includes Homecoming,”?said Appel. “You can check me on that, but I can’t remember anybody in this community who performed down the stretch the way Ty did. The last five games made him the Player of the Year, and what more important time is there to become the Player of the Year?”

For the season, Johnson scored 23 touchdowns and 140 points, returned three kickoffs for 111 yards and seven punts for 114 yards, with 15 pass receptions for 332 yards and five touchdowns.

“He’s super explosive,” said Appel. “At any point of time when he has the ball in his hands he can score from anywhere on the field. Any time he touches the ball he can put points on the board. His yards per carry says this. It’s not as though he had 10 carries this year. He had 72 carries and averaged over 17 yards on each one of them.”

Defensively, he finished with an area-high 10 interceptions, with every one that occurred in the playoffs opening the door for a Fort Hill win, including a 45-yard interception return for touchdown in the Homecoming Game.

“On the defensive side of the ball, I didn’t think he would have the big year that he did until he started to understand the corner position and breaking on the ball,”?Appel said. “He breaks on the ball as well as anybody I’ve ever seen. And people forget he’s just a junior. About the sixth or seventh game it just kicked in for him and, of course, Homecoming was a big breakout game for him. The kickoff he returned for a touchdown ... he just took off after that.”

At the conclusion of the season, Johnson was named first-team Maryland All-State all-purpose back for 2A and 1A schools.

“Ty is a quiet, humble kid who just lets his actions and performance speak for itself,” said Appel. “He doesn’t say much and he doesn’t need to. He’s quite unassuming. He’ll help anybody who asks him for his help. He just has a need to help people.

“They say just rewards come to good people. Well, Ty Johnson is a very good example of that.”

Dekarai Darr

Senior Dekarai Darr, the Sentinels’ 5-3, 170-pound fullback, led the area in rushing and shared the area scoring title with Frankfort’s Brady Watson. Darr rushed for 1,665 yards on 158 carries for a 10.5 yards-per-carry average with 24 touchdowns and a two-point conversion for 146 points.

A second-team Maryland All-State running back, Darr is the strongest player to ever come through the Fort Hill weight program and the past two seasons, Fort Hill was 21-1 with Darr as the starting fullback.

“I’m going to miss Dekarai for a lot reasons,” said Appel. “He’s a good football player who helps the football team, that, obviously, being one of the reasons. But you get very attached to his personality.?He keeps everybody alive with his personality. But you can’t say enough about somebody with his size who is that strong. Wow. I don’t think anybody that size will come along and make an impact on Cumberland area football the way Dekarai has. Somebody that size who works that hard and makes the impact he did doesn’t come along very often at all.”

In a 21-17 comeback win at Chestnut Ridge, after an Alex Barnes interception, the Sentinels put together the game-winning drive of 65 yards on 12 plays with Darr going over for the two-yard touchdown with 3:59 left in the game.

“Against Chestnut Ridge when we needed a big drive at the end, we put it in Dekarai’s hands and he delivered,” said Appel. “He’s one kid I will remember and love for a lifetime, not because of his athletic ability but for his hard work and personality.

“He’s a big performer. He’s 5-3 but he runs like an old-school Fort Hill fullback. He runs like a lumbering fullback. He can run you over, he can drag you, he can bounce off of you and make you miss. He has tremendous discrimination with the ball. People of that stature prove people wrong —?they fight harder. Dekarai certainly did that. He worked twice as hard.”

Cody Dolly

Cody Dolly, 6-0, 200-pound senior linebacker led the Fort Hill defense, which put a wrap on the season with shutouts in the state semifinal and state championship games and gave up just 13 points in four postseason game.

Dolly led the team with 67 solo tackles and 54 assisted tackles. He had 6.5 special team tackles, a fumble recovery, two interceptions, 9.5 quarterback sacks and three batted balls for 358.5 defensive points, the top figure on the team by over 50 points.

“Cody Dolly is probably one of the most instinctive linebackers I’ve ever seen,” Appel said. “He’s a super fundamentalist; he understands the offensive game, where the ball is going, where it could possibly go, down and distance.”

A first-team All-State linebacker, Dolly played a significant role in Fort Hill’s state semifinal appearance during his sophomore year before playing his junior season at Canterbury Prep School in New Milford, Conn.

“Cody makes regular read plays look like stunts because he understands the other team’s offense so well,” Appel said. “I’m glad he came back to Fort Hill, to be very honest, and it paid off for everybody. He’s the Defensive Player of the Year. We won the state championship and I think he can play college football at a high level because of his unique combination of strength, speed, technique and understanding.

“He’s very deserving of the Player of the Year award. The kind of year he had and the kind of player he is, nobody can take that away from him. It is what it is. He’s the best defensive player in the area.”

Dolly, who played for the Baltimore team in the Maryland Crab Bowl, has earned a tryout for the Maryland team in the Big 33 Game in Hershey, Pa. His teammate, first-team All-State offensive lineman Preston Bryant, was one of the first 20 players selected to play for the Maryland team.

Todd Appel

Todd Appel is the Area Coach of the Year for the third time in four years and the fourth time overall in his six seasons as the Fort Hill head coach.

Appel has coached his alma mater to 66 victories and just 11 losses for a winning percentage of .857, four West Region titles and two berths in the state championship game, the Sentinels having fallen to Dunbar on a last-seconds play, 20-19, in the 2008 final.