Sentinels secure spot in championship
Beat Hornets 36-20 to set up rematch with Douglass

by Mike Mathews

CUMBERLAND — They did it again, in record-setting fashion, on a cold football Friday night at Greenway Avenue Stadium.

Now, it’s off to Baltimore for one final test against another familiar foe.

The top-seeded and defending champion Fort Hill Sentinels scored 29 points in the first half, came up with several big defensive plays when things got a bit uncomfortable in the second half, and beat Surrattsville 36-20 in their Class 1A state semifinal.

The win was an area record 27th in a row for coach Todd Appel’s team, and Ty Johnson scored a school record 33rd touchdown for the Sentinels, who trailed 6-0 early but led 29-6 by halftime.

The win sets up a third straight playoff rematch. Fort Hill (13-0) will play Frederick Douglass (12-1) of Baltimore in the state championship game on Saturday, Dec. 6, 3:30 p.m., at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. Fort Hill beat Douglass in last year’s title game 25-0.

Getting to next week’s game turned out to be a Major accomplishment, in more ways than one.

Johnson ran 12 times for 110 yards and scored a pair of first-half touchdowns, Alex Barnes ran 10 times for 89 yards and a touchdown and Raen Smith had 16 carries, 75 yards and a score for Fort Hill. Rashaan Shives threw for a touchdown and ran for another.

The Sentinels needed all of that, and then some, to turn away Surrattsville (8-5), a team they had beaten 42-0 in the same game on the same field last year. The reason was speedy and elusive Amaru Major, who ran for 254 yards on 28 carries and scored all three of the Hornets’ touchdowns.

“Surrattsville was ready to play and never quit. We were up 29-6 and they came back with a couple of big runs and battled the whole second half,’’ said Appel. “It was nip-and-tuck till the end. Our kids did a great job, and I’m very thankful we’re able to play for another state championship. Hopefully, we’ll find a way to win one more.”

While the teams combined for 56 points and more than 800 yards of offense, it was several big defensive plays by Fort Hill that kept the game in the Sentinels’ hands.

Freshman Brayden Poling intercepted a pass at the Fort Hill 3 to stop a seven-minute Surrattsville drive early in the second quarter, and when the Sentinels marched 97 yards in seven plays for a touchdown it turned a 14-6 game, which appeared to be headed to 14-12 or 14-14 until Poling’s pick, to 22-6 when Barnes scored on an 8-yard run.

“It stopped them from getting in right there, and it was a big part to the night. It could’ve been real close there at the end,’’ admitted Poling who, unofficially, had nine tackles. “It feels good. But it’s not about me, it’s the whole team.”

Late in the fourth quarter, after Surrattsville got to within 29-20, Luke Stegmaier stopped the Hornets cold twice in a four-minute span, the first time with a sack on fourth down at the Fort Hill 40 with 5:53 to go, and the second time by recovering a fumble at the Surrattsville 45 with 2:31 on the clock.

“On the sack, I?was given the all-go by my teammates. If it wasn’t for my teammates I wouldn’t have went through untouched,” Stegmaier said. “But I got the call and was able to get through and make a difference. On the fumble, one of my teammates came up and made a big hit and I was just in the right place at the right time.”

As it turned out, the Sentinels lost a fumble two plays later, but the Hornets were unable to capitalize again, this time throwing four consecutive incompletions.

Surrattsville scored on the first possession of the game, and led 6-0 after a five-yard run by Major just 1:40 into the game.

But the Sentinels, in typical quick-strike fashion, erased their deficit less than three minutes later on an 11-yard run by Johnson. A 33-yard run by Johnson set up a five-yard touchdown run by Smith that made it 14-6 with 3:56 left in the quarter.

Poling’s interception set up the next score and 97-yard drive. The Sentinels went the distance in only seven plays, the series featuring 17- and 24-yard runs by Barnes, and 15- and 18-yard runs by Johnson before Barnes ran eight yards for the score and 22-6 lead midway through the second quarter.

When Shives hit Johnson with a well-thrown 31-yard touchdown pass it gave Fort Hill touchdowns on its first four possessions. It also gave Johnson his record-setting 33rd touchdown, and gave him 200 points scored for the season, tying the school record set by Steve Trimble in 1975. Trimble had also held the record for touchdowns, with 32.

Surrattsville, which had nearly 300 yards of offense in the second half, scored midway through the third quarter on a 55-yard run by Major, then chopped the Fort Hill lead to 29-20 on a 14-yard run by Major with a full quarter to play.

But the fourth quarter belonged to Fort Hill, thanks to a defense that bent a little but refused to break, with Stegmaier’s sack and fumble recovery and Quade Raley’s hit and forced fumble the biggest blows.