Nov. 23, 2013
by Mike Mathews

CUMBERLAND — Ty Johnson started it, again, and everyone else quickly joined in as top-seeded Fort Hill mowed down third-seeded North Carroll, 49-6, winning the Class 1A West Region championship in convincing fashion Friday night at Greenway Avenue Stadium.

The win gave the Sentinels their fifth 1A?West title in eight years and sends them to the state semifinals with a 12-0 record. The semifinal will be Friday or Saturday, at Greenway Avenue Stadium.

Dekarai Darr scored three touchdowns, Hunter Squires threw for two and ran for another and the defense picked off three passes for Fort Hill, which scored touchdowns on five of its six first-half possessions and led 35-0 at the half.

The Sentinels’ speed and array of weapons quickly proved too much for North Carroll, which turned in a solid first quarter but had little to show for it.

“We’ve got a lot of guys we can go to, and we try to make ourselves stronger and faster during the offseason,’’ Fort Hill coach Todd?Appel said. “They’re all good athletes, too.

“But it was tough getting the ball in the first half. North Carroll did a good job of keeping the ball away from us. They were dinking and dunking us with their passing and throwing some short passes with their bubbles and slants.

“But once we got on the field we proved we could score and that we could score in different ways.”

The Panthers?(8-4) led in possession 10:15 to 1:45 and ran 24 plays to Fort Hill’s five in the first quarter. But they trailed 14-0 on the scoreboard.

North Carroll appeared ready to take an early lead, driving inside the Fort Hill 10 in the first quarter. But the Sentinels defense held, forcing an incomplete pass on fourth-and-goal from the two, and the offense wasted no time in taking control.

Just two plays later, Johnson, who returned the opening kickoff of the Homecoming game for a touchdown against Allegany and had a 63-yard touchdown run in the first minute of last week’s win over Manchester Valley, went off left tackle, got a big block by Brennan Carlin and sprinted down the sideline 93 yards for a touchdown.

Four plays later, Cody Dolly intercepted a pass near midfield and returned it to the North Carroll eight. Darr did the rest, following Carlin and Alex Barnes into the end zone to make it 14-0.

“We came out ready to play,’’ said North Carroll coach Matt Martello. “The scoreboard didn’t indicate it. Even when it was 14-0 I told the boys, ‘it feels like we’re winning, right? But, we’re not. So we have to stop them.’

“But we could not stop their backs. We just couldn’t. And neither could Manchester Valley, and neither probably could a lot of teams.”

The Sentinels, who averaged 10.5 yards per carry against Manchester Valley last week (31 carries, 327 yards), averaged 20.9 against North Carroll (12 carries, 251 yards). Darr finished with five rushes for 152 yards and Johnson had just the one carry for 93.

After a North Carroll punt, the Sentinels went 80 yards in three plays, with Darr scoring on a 73-yard dash with 9:27 left in the half.

At that point, the Sentinels had run eight offensive plays and scored 21 points.

The Sentinels got their passing game some work, and it was just as effective as the ground game. Squires completed five straight passes for 66 yards on the next series, then scored on a one-yard sneak to make it 28-0.

An eight-yard touchdown pass to Devin Shreve capped a 61-yard drive just before halftime, making it 35-0.

The second half was a quick one, with the clock running because of the 35-point mercy rule. Darr scored on the second play of the third quarter on a 59-yard burst, and Squires hit Johnson in stride with a 24-yard touchdown pass later in the period to make it 49-0.

Squires finished 10 of 12 for 139 yards passing, with Shreve catching five balls for 75 yards.

“Hunter’s a great quarterback and he’s been a great quarterback the last two years,’’ said Appel. “When you have a big offensive line and the backs like we have, he doesn’t always get the exposure that he probably deserves.

“We know we have to throw the ball to be successful. We can’t have people putting a lot of guys in the box defending us. Hunter proved tonight he can throw the ball with the best of them, and our receivers did a great job catching the ball, too.”

North Carroll’s Justin Tunis scored on a five-yard run in the final minute.

“Once they got up, it became more difficult to run our offense,”?Martello said. “We were planning on throwing the ball a little more than normal and try to get up the middle.

“It would have been a huge upset if we would have won this game. But we were going in to win. I was proud of my kids that they didn’t lay an egg right at the beginning. We put up a fight. I?wish we could have put up a fight in the second half.”

Quarterback Jack Flowers completed 9 of 21 passes for 110 yards for North Carroll. Dolly, Johnson and Shreve had interceptions for Fort Hill.

Cambridge-South Dorchester whipped Perryville 42-0 to win the East Region last night. Edmonson plays Douglass-Baltimore in the South final and Sparrows Point faces Surrattsville in the North championship game today.

Fort Hill won the West by beating Manchester Valley and North Carroll by a combined 95-13 score.

“We know the next two weeks will be harder,” said Appel. “We’ve been here and done that before. We know we have to get ready in practice this week for the tougher competition.”

Following an awfully familiar script Friday night, the unbeaten Sentinels routed Surrattsville 42-0 in a third straight playoff mismatch at Greenway Avenue Stadium, earning a spot in next week’s Class 1A state championship game at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

Fort Hill (13-0) will play

the winner of today’s Douglass/Cambridge-South Dorchester game in the state final on Saturday, Dec. 7, at noon.

A win next week would give Fort Hill a perfect season and the school’s third football state championship. The other state championship teams, 1975 and 1997, also were undefeated.

Friday night, Ty Johnson and Alex Barnes scored two touchdowns and Dekarai Darr and Hunter Squires scored one as the Sentinels built a huge lead and cruised to their 12th straight win.

Johnson ran for 143 yards on only five carries and Darr had 119 yards on 16 carries to lead a ground attack that piled up 350 yards.

For the second straight week the Sentinels led 35-0 at halftime. They have outscored their three playoff opponents by a 137-13 margin.

Few expected the state semifinal to be so one-sided.

“I was pretty nervous. I didn’t know what to expect,” Johnson said. “But it’s a great feeling to be going to Baltimore. I’m excited about that.”

Fort Hill coach Todd Appel, while confident in his team, didn’t expect to see the game he saw.

“Surrattsville is athletic and anytime you face an athletic team they have big-play potential,” he said. “We knew that coming in, and we knew the key players were Amaru Major and Ryan Wilcox. They were making big plays for them all year. We tried to mix up our coverage along with playing run defense and the kids did a great job with that.”

Major ran for 127 yards and Wilcox caught three passes for 91 yards, including an exceptional one-hand grab on a 48-yard gain, but the Hornets (10-3) managed little else.

Johnson, for the fourth straight week, came up with the first big play on offense, this time scoring on a 59-yard burst off right tackle with 1:36 left in the first quarter. The first of six Chris King extra points gave Fort Hill a 7-0 lead after the first quarter.

Joe Mundella and Cody Dolly stopped Daquan West on fourth-and-one at the Fort Hill 19, and moments later Johnson did again what he seems to do best — sprint untouched into the end zone — this time on an 81-yard dash.

“I don’t know why,” Johnson said about his knack of scoring the early touchdowns. “It’s just the linemen. They are great linemen. They block their tails off for me and I just follow them. They’re big guys, and I’m a small guy. I just follow them all the time.”

Center Michael Wright, guards Brennan Carlin and Timmy Friend, tackles Josh Roberts and Preston Bryant and tight end Ryan Shives have opened all big holes all year. In just the postseason, the Sentinels have averaged 11.9 yards per carry, gaining 928 yards on 78 rushes.

“Preston, Brennan and Michael are three seniors who have been great leaders all year long. We have young kids on the left side. Timmy Friend is a sophomore and Josh Roberts and Ryan Shives are juniors,’’ said Appel. “They are well-coached by Shaun Lewis and Rusty Swarner and they listen well. They are coachable, smart kids. They love to play football.”

The Sentinels ran 35 times for 350 yards. Of the 35 carries, all went for positive yardage.

Johnson’s 81-yard touchdown run seemed to take the starch out of Surrattsville, which had played well in the first quarter but fell apart in the second.

On the ensuing kickoff, Ryan Smith fell on a loose, squib kick at the Surrattsville 11. Darr ran it in on the next play, giving Fort Hill two touchdowns in 14 seconds, and three touchdowns on its last three offensive snaps.

A personal foul on the extra point enabled Fort Hill to kick off from the Surrattsville 45, and King’s expertly-kicked onside kick bounced over the front row of Hornets and into the waiting arms of Devin Shreve at the 28.

Five plays later, Barnes scored on an 11-yard run with 8:59 left in the half and the Sentinels, who had led 7-0 just three minutes earlier, now were on top 28-0.

A three-and-out by Surrattsville and a 14-yard punt put the Sentinels back in business at the Hornets 41. Darr had runs of 22, 14 and six yards. A nine-yard run by Barnes put the ball at the one, and Hunter Squires scored on a sneak to give Fort Hill a touchdown on a fifth straight possession and a 35-0 halftime lead.

It was another quick second half with the 35-point mercy rule in effect. Barnes had the only second-half touchdown with a five-yard run in the third quarter.

Surrattsville had driven to the Fort Hill 3, 23 and 19 in the first quarter but was turned away each time. Adam DuVall recovered a fumbled handoff at the Fort Hill 4 on the first drive. The Hornets turned the ball over on downs on the other two.

“This is a great team effort. This team wants to leave a team legacy and they really work together well,” said Appel.

“When our offense is having a hard time getting rolling, then our defense takes over. If we need a play by our special teams to get the ball back for us, they do it and do a good job.

“It’s really a team thing with these kids. They really want to win this whole thing, but they want to do it together.”