Nov. 1, 2013
STAFF REPORTS

FROSTBURG — Fort Hill had four players score during a five-touchdown first half as the Sentinels remained undefeated heading into Homecoming by beating Mountain Ridge 51-12 in high school football Friday night.

The Sentinels forced big turnovers and relied on the quick score early before slowing down and and concentrating on managing the flow after building a big lead.

Dakarai Darr picked up 22 yards on Fort Hill’s first play and Ty Johnson finished the drive two plays later from 39 yards away, slicing through the defense to give the Sentinels a 7-0 lead.

Darr would get his chance later in the first quarter on a 14-yard run.

Following the kickoff and one offensive play by the Miners, Ryan Shives intercepted a pass at the Mountain Ridge 33 and returned it the distance for Fort Hill’s second touchdown.

The Miners’ next two possessions ended on fumbles, allowing Darr to stretch the lead to 29-0 with two straight touchdowns.

The nightmare for the Miners continued on their following drive when Johnson intercepted a pass near midfield and returned it to the one with the help of a face mask penalty on the Miners which led to an ejection.

Quarterback Hunter Squires became the fourth Sentinel to score in the first half with a sneak from the one on the following snap that made it 36-0.

Mountain Ridge constructed its sturdiest drive of the half in the closing minutes of the second quarter. Rashawn Johnson provided tough running as the Miners moved consistently down the field until the speedy junior finished the march with a 13-yard touchdown with 5:01 remaining.

Johnson, the area’s leading rusher, had another night over 100 yards, running for 138 on 27 carries.

A 45-yard run from Fort Hill’s Johnson put the Sentinels in position to score before the half but they ran out of clock and led 36-6 at the break. Johnson had just three carries all evening, but ran for 91 yards.

The Sentinels appeared to score on the first play of the second half but had the play called back on a holding penalty. Darr concluded the drive seven plays later by going the final 13 yards for his third score and a 43-6 lead. Darr, the second-leading rusher in the area, ran for 97 yards on 10 carries to go with the three touchdowns.

“They are never easy,” said Fort Hill Coach Todd Appel. “We came into tonight with the perspective that we had to stop No. 21 (Johnson) in order to win and that we had to learn from the lesson we got in the win over Chestnut Ridge.

“I think we learned our lesson from last week, but we would have liked to done a little better at stopping their outstanding running back. We were happy with the way the players responded, but were a little disappointed when we let them score right before halftime.”

Fort Hill collected its fifth turnover when Johnson intercepted another pass and Devin Shreve converted the drive into more points with an 18-yard run just inside the fourth quarter.

The Miners put together one final drive with the clock running in the fourth quarter, finishing it off when Logan Jeffries ran eight yards with about a minute left in the fourth.

Fort Hill enters Homecoming week seeking its fifth consecutive win over the Campers when the teams meet for the 88th time Saturday at 12:30.

“We need to get ready for an Allegany team that is better than its record shows. They’ve had turnovers hurt them, but they are a well-coached team and will fix that. It is a team that still looks like it hasn’t reached its stride. While we hope that they don’t hit it next week, we need to get ready thinking they will.”

Mountain Ridge (3-6) finishes the season at Keyser on Friday.