Nov. 19, 2016
By Mike Burke

It had the grandeur and power of a heavyweight championship bout, and it played to the ferocity of a fist fight.

Fort Hill defeated Allegany again on Friday night, 26-14, for the Maryland 1A West Region championship. It marked the Sentinels’ 23rd straight victory and a record 10th straight win over the Campers. Most important to the task at hand, however, the win gave Fort Hill the region title for the fourth straight year and the right to host next weekend’s 1A semifinal with Kent County.

The theme of the game, played before a fine Friday night crowd on both sides of the field, was the bend but don’t break of the Fort Hill defense. Allegany had an excellent game plan, unwrinkling new formations and sets, being patient with the game clock and running fullback Karson Robinette directly at the Sentinels’ strength to the tune of 122 yards.

Seemingly whenever the Campers went to the pass it would give the Fort Hill defense the chance to spread its wings and make stops with its collective athleticism and speed — not only in the secondary, which stopped two drives with interceptions, but along the front seven, which took off on its instinct to pressure and rattle the Alco backfield.

The Campers had 18 first downs on the night to the Sentinels’ 15, and led in time of possession by five minutes, driving into Fort Hill territory on six of their eight possessions. Yet they could manage but two touchdowns — the first one coming early in the fourth quarter to cut their deficit to 19-7, the second one with 42 seconds left in the game to come to within the final margin of 12.

Nearly everything that Allegany threw at Fort Hill, and the Campers threw plenty, Fort Hill had an answer for. Or at least the Sentinels bided their time in determining the answer while they were bending, but not breaking. In boxing vernacular it wouldn’t have been the Ali Rope a Dope, but more like counter punching before finishing with a right cross.

It brought to mind the old saying, “It was like two guys from the old neighborhood who don’t like each other going after each other,” because it was two guys from the neighborhood who, on any occasion they meet on the field, don’t like each other. And they went after each other again on Friday night.

But the Sentinels are not only a deep and talented team, they are a veteran and savvy team as they showed again against the best team they’ve faced all year. Allegany head coach Bryan Hansel, of whom it can be said did a great job of eliminating the word “interim” from the conversation, all but said so.

Hansel, who guided Allegany to a 9-2 record in the first year of his first head coaching gig, believed his team could have capitalized had it caught a break or two the way it appeared to him that Fort Hill had. Yet the Allegany coach was quick to qualify his sentiment by saying, “They make the breaks. I’m not saying they get lucky by any means. They prepare and are a great team.

“I just think we needed a few breaks to go our way. We get a touchdown here, a stop there, a missed tackle here … and we’re in this game the whole way into the fourth quarter. Our kids played hard. I thought we were physical and matched their physicality. We just didn’t capitalize on the chances we had.”

Fort Hill was physical and played hard right along with them. But it was Fort Hill who got a touchdown here, a stop there and who didn’t miss a critical tackle here, because you become the three-time defending state champion by capitalizing on the chances you have.

Perhaps the instance that best defined this came on Fort Hill’s opening possession when junior Logan Johnson capitalized on what was given him by zipping 16 yards up the middle of the Alco defense on a quarterback sneak, setting up what would be the first Fort Hill touchdown of the night — a one-yard Logan Johnson quarterback sneak.

Brayden Poling’s 53-yard run was rather helpful to the drive as well, but it all played together to put the Camper defense momentarily off balance, and the Sentinels capitalized for the first Fort Hill win in 23 games in which its starting quarterback was not named Graves.

It was Johnson who started the game at quarterback in place of Nathaniel Graves, who was eased back into action after being medically cleared to play after being injured last week against Northern. Graves is a player who always seems to capitalize, whether he is playing quarterback or safety. Yet it was the Sentinels as a group, as a team, as an organization, who capitalized by having a player such as Johnson start the game at a most important position, and not only settle the ship, but captain it to a tone-establishing moment.

It was a moment Fort Hill used to make clear it would have to be beaten for advancement by the Campers to occur, because Fort Hill would not beat itself. Not in this game. Not on this night.

Allegany threw all it had to the wall, but the pasta wouldn’t stick. Fort Hill was ready and prepared for it, and once more it is the Sentinels who will stick and who will prepare to move along.