'Find a way or make one': Fort Hill wins slugfest over Allegany, 21-7, at Homecoming

Oct. 30, 2022
by Kyle Bennett

CUMBERLAND — Find a way or make one. It was an old Fort Hill motto, and it came in handy on Saturday in what turned into a slugfest against Allegany at Homecoming.

The Sentinels had just four first downs — half of which went for touchdowns — as second-ranked Fort Hill downed No. 4 Allegany, 21-7, in the 48th installment of Homecoming and 100th meeting between the two schools.

“Man, it was a physical game,” Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire said. “All things considered, we played fine. We’re not necessarily a physical team all the time, we do a lot of finesse. But today we had to do a little of both and the guys did a great job.”

The win gives the Sentinels their 17th consecutive win over Allegany and their 14th straight at Homecoming.

“I thought they played with tons of effort,” Allegany head coach Bryan Hansel said. “I don’t know how many people saw this score coming. We kind of did. So I was happy with the way the kids played.”

Mikey Allen led the Fort Hill offense with 135 yards of offense, including a 79-yard touchdown catch and a 50-yard TD scamper.

“It’s big,” Alkire said of Allen’s home run ability. “We have a ton of guys that can do that. It seems like game in and game out it’s a different guy. Today’s day was Mikey’s day. He made a couple big plays for us, especially early, that really got us going. He’s going to continue to make plays for us through the playoffs.”

Anthony Palmisano returned a fourth-quarter blocked field goal and, two plays later, picked off an Allegany pass to ice the game.

“At Fort Hill, we have a different motto every year,” Alkire said. “I remember back to when I was growing up, it was, ‘Find a way or make one.’ That was the case. If we couldn’t find a way, we made one, especially there on the blocked field goal for a touchdown. Whatever it takes to win.”

Palmisano was voted Defensive Player of the Game by members of the media for the second year in a row, becoming the first player in the history of the rivalry to win defensive honors twice.

Cayden Bratton had a game for the history books, tying the Homecoming record for carries at 34, gaining 89 yards and a touchdown, and being voted Offensive Player of the Game. Former Camper Jim Daum carried the rock 34 times in the 1968 Homecoming game, which Allegany won, 13-12.

“It’s tough,” Alkire said of gameplanning for Bratton, the area’s second-leading rusher who is filling in at QB for the injured Brody Williams. “He’s a hard, physical runner. He’s always been one of this class’ best players. He’s always the guy we look at across the field, whether it’s youth league or Patriots or JVs. He’s a great player, great kid, hard worker. He’s going to win some honors at the end of the year. How we were able to hold them to seven points today, with him running the ball as well as he did, was really great for us.”

Bratton is the third player to win Offensive Player of the Game as a member of the losing team. Fort Hill’s Willie Hawley ran 18 times for 151 yards and a score in 1989, when the Campers won 22-16. In 1979, a game the Sentinels won 22-16, Allegany’s Eric Taylor ran for 178 yards, a Homecoming record that stood until 2017 when Tyreke Powell had 187 yards on the ground.

After the Campers won the toss and deferred to the second half, it took the Sentinels just two plays to reach the end zone as quarterback Anthony Burns hit Allen over the top for a 79-yard score. The point-after try failed, giving Fort Hill a 6-0 lead just 50 seconds into the contest.

“The first touchdown, me and Anthony just connected,” Allen said. “I saw no safety over the top, so I just kind of looked at him and he knew.”

A false start, a bad snap and a Fort Hill sack set the Campers up with a third-and-28 on the next drive, punting one play later. But the Sentinels fumbled on their first play from scrimmage, with Allegany’s Brendan Hogamier recovering at the Alco 46.

The Campers strung together a drive from there, with Bratton picking up a pair of four-yard runs before gains of four from Isaiah Fields and Brett Patterson.

A five-yard run by Bratton set up a third-and-1, which the senior tailback converted before being brought back on an Allegany holding penalty, killing the drive that spanned six minutes and 15 seconds.

The Campers got the ball back just three plays later when Allegany’s Dae Dae Smith tipped a pass and Jacob Salonish intercepted it at the Fort Hill 28.

Allegany dished out a steady dose of Bratton on the ensuing drive, with runs of three, 10, six, five and one setting up a one-yard plunge for a touchdown at 8:48 in the second quarter. Blake Powell’s PAT gave the Campers a 7-6 edge.

Fort Hill’s next drive stalled out after a run by Willis on second-and-9 for a first down, and a 45-yard pass from Burns to Tanner Wertz were both wiped out via penalties.

After a 52-yard punt by Sentinels’ punter Quinn Cohen, the Campers’ ensuing drive ended when Fort Hill’s Landon Keech fell on a fumble near midfield.

Two plays later, the Sentinels nabbed their second first down on the day and re-took the lead as Allen rushed up the left side before cutting back inside to reach the end zone on a 50-yard run. Burns hit Metz on a two-point pass with 3:10 to go as Fort Hill took a 14-7 lead into the break.

The teams traded punts throughout a scoreless third quarter, but the Campers had a chance to potentially knot the game at 14-all when Alex Kennell blocked a Fort Hill punt.

“We started off slow but we knew it going to be like that,” Allen said. “We knew Allegany was going to put up a fight. We just had to fight adversity and do what we do.”

After the ball rolled out of bounds at the Fort Hill 14, the Sentinel defense stood strong to hold Bratton to one yard on first down, then no gain on second and third downs to end the frame.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, the Campers lined up for a 30-yard field goal to try to cut their deficit to four points.

Instead, Shane Welsh got through the line and blocked the field goal try, with Palmisano scooping it up at the 18 and running 82 yards for a touchdown. Cohen’s PAT put the score at its final.

“We had to hold them to 21 or less, and we did that,” Hansel said. “I think the tide really changed when we were going to make it a one-score game with a field goal. It gets blocked, they return it. That’s a 10-point swing, 14-10 means you’re driving to win the game rather than driving down two scores.”

“We can’t settle for field goals,” Bratton added. “How we settled for a field goal there, got blocked and returned. We’ve kind of struggled with that here and there this season, but we have this film at least to go back, watch over it.”

Palmisano picked off an Allegany pass two plays later to all but ice the game.

“They’re super competitive kids,” Alkire said. “First half, they were really frustrated with how things were going. They had to take a timeout in the locker room and readjust in the locker room. We said, ‘Hey, look, you’re playing frustrated. You’re up by seven at halftime. You’ve just got to go out in the second half and play lights-out.’ Defensively they played lights out. We got a couple plays here that sealed the game for us.”

The win moves Fort Hill’s all-time record against the Campers to 62-34-2 and 35-13 at Homecoming.

“I think it’s real cool and I appreciate it,” Fort Hill’s Carter Hess said on playing in the 100th meeting between the Sentinels and Campers. “It’s kinda weird to me but I love it.”

With a nine-yard pass to Salonish on the Campers’ final drive, Bratton accounted for 98 of his team’s 116 yards of offense. The Sentinels finished with 204 yards of offense, 110 of which came through the air.

Both teams turned the ball over twice, while Fort Hill committed nine penalties for 70 yards — the Campers were flagged four times for 26 yards.

“The good thing is, we see them in two weeks,” Bratton said of a potential playoff rematch. “It always stinks after Homecoming you don’t get to see them again, but we get to play them again. We competed. Some things here and there, we’re in the game, we win the game.”

While the playoff matchups will be officially announced in the next 48 hours, Allegany (6-3) looks set to have the No. 3 seed and will likely host No. 6 Clear Spring (2-7).

“It feels really good,” Burns said of the win. “But like last year, we’re trying to win a state title — that’d feel even better.”

The Sentinels’ quest for a ninth state title begins next week as they will be the No. 2 seed and likely host No. 7 Southern (1-8).