Fort Hill demolishes Allegany, 48-0, in playoffs

Nov. 13, 2022
by Alex Rychwalski

CUMBERLAND — After a hard-fought Homecoming bout, Fort Hill ran over, around and through Allegany in the playoff rematch on Saturday night.

Whether it was the speed of Mikey Allen, Tanner Wertz and Tavin Willis, the bruising running of Jabril Daniels, Fort Hill’s inventive play calling or the ferocious, suffocating effort of the Sentinels’ defense, Allegany had no answer.

The 101st meeting of Fort Hill and Allegany ended as the previous 18 have, as the Sentinels demolished the Campers, 48-0, in the Class 1A West Region co-championship at Greenway Avenue Stadium.

Fort Hill (10-1) is the No. 2 seed in the state and will host No. 7 Perryville (7-4) this week. Allegany finishes the season 7-4.

“It’s a great win,” Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire said. “The kids came out firing on all cylinders. I’m extremely happy with the way they came out tonight. They played extremely hard, played with a lot of emotion, and it showed.”

Two statistics tell the story of the game: Allegany had one first down against the Sentinels’ first-team defense, and Fort Hill’s average drive started on the Camper 30-yard line.

Both facts originate from the same source, the Fort Hill defense, which stacked eight men in the box and trusted the coverage skills of Anthony Palmisano, Allen and Willis.

To say it worked would be an understatement, as the Campers managed just four yards of offense entering the fourth quarter.

“They went Cover 0 and said we’ll out-athlete you on the edges,” Allegany head coach Bryan Hansel said. “That was a great defensive game plan, it caught us slightly off guard.

“We thought it would be an adjustment after we had some success. Hats off to them for their scheme. They won up front.”

The tone was set from the opening kick-off. Allen fielded Blake Powell’s boot off a bounce, toe-tapped the sideline, cut back in and found a seam for a 95-yard gut-punch of a touchdown.

Allen’s score marked the third week in a row one of Fort Hill’s burners notched a special teams TD. Palmisano returned a blocked field goal 82 yards for a score in Homecoming, and Willis had a 53-yard punt return for a touchdown against Southern last week.

“We’ve been on these guys all year, we have all these athletes out here, and we haven’t taken one back yet,” Alkire said. “Last week we returned a punt and now a kick. I’m extremely happy.”

Fort Hill turned the Campers over on their next two possessions — Shane Welsh recovered a fumble and Willis intercepted a pass — and, after a six-yard touchdown run by Allen and a physical 23-yard Daniels score, the Sentinels led 21-0 just 4:44 into the game.

The Sentinels’ average drive start during the first half was the Allegany 28-yard line, and that began to weigh on the Campers’ defense.

“When you start down 21-0 after a kick return and two turnovers, it really puts you behind the eight-ball hard,” Hansel said. “We knew we had to play lights out defensively.

“It’s hard, when a team gets to start in four-down territory, to tell your kids, ‘Go play defense, go play defense.’ It’s what we did to our defense the whole first half.”

Fort Hill’s longest drive was a four-play, 49-yard series capped by a seven-yard Daniels touchdown with 11:01 left in the half. Daniels, a sophomore, got the start at fullback and shined, rushing for 53 yards on seven carries.

The Sentinels ran their final two drives of the opening half out of the Wildcat, with Allen receiving the snap out of the shotgun and quarterback Anthony Burns lined up out wide.

Allen faked a handoff and scampered eight yards for a score to make it 34-0 Fort Hill with 5:53 remaining. That lead stood at the break after the Campers blocked a 29-yard Sentinel field goal attempt at the end of the half.

“It’s something that we knew we wanted to run at some point this season, and we didn’t want to hold onto it,” Alkire said of the Wildcat. “We probably didn’t need it tonight, but then you get into a situation next week when you might not need it, and then again the following week.

“Then you get to the state championship game and get in a situation when you might need it, and you’ve never seen it live.”

The inventive play calling by Fort Hill extended to a trick play too, as the Sentinels ran a halfback pass out of the I-Formation with Allen throwing to the end zone to Palmisano on fourth down.

The pass was deflected by an Allegany defensive back for a turnover on downs, but it was just one of two Fort Hill possessions that didn’t result in touchdowns all night — six did.

Fort Hill finished with a 218-68 advantage in total offense and 10-5 in first downs. The Sentinels had 32 rushes for 200 yards.

“Our defense has been our calling card all season, it’s kept us in games, but our offense has sputtered a little bit,” Alkire said. “For the last two weeks, we’ve really gone back to the drawing board. We’ve put a focus on the way we’re blocking, and the way we’re running through our plays.

“It was a collective effort between the coaches, but also the kids. The kids executed tonight. Our backs were blocking better than they have in the past. Our line seemed focused and they made good line calls.”

Fort Hill came back to the traditional Wing-T with Burns under center to open the second half, and Wertz proceeded to score from 23 yards out on a jet sweep to cap a five-play, 45-yard drive.

After the Sentinels turned the Campers over on downs at the Alco 25-yard line, Willis found pay-dirt three plays later on a nine-yard score on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Wertz led the way rushing for the Sentinels with eight carries for 82 yards. Willis had seven runs for 32 yards, and Allen rushed for 31 on five totes. Burns completed his lone pass attempt, an 18-yarder to Willis.

Allegany moved the ball on its final possession, gaining 60 yards on 11 plays and converting four first downs before the running clock expired. Cayden Bratton ended with 23 rushes for 52 yards, and Brody Williams had eight rushes for 10 yards.

Williams completed 1 of 7 passes for five yards and an interception. Jacob Salonish snagged the reception.

Only three Allegany players rushed the football, with Brett Patterson having one carry for one yard to join Bratton and Williams in the box score.

The Campers had wanted to get more players involved in the offense this week — like Isaiah Fields, who rushed for more than 200 yards and four touchdowns against Clear Spring last week — but Fort Hill’s defensive game plan threw them for a loop.

“We came out with some different sets we thought we’d have some advantages, and then they’d adjust, but they came out right away with what we thought would be their plan B or C,” Hansel said.

“It got away from us. We tried to throw a little bit, and Brody just didn’t have time. They basically played Engage Eight the whole game.”

Allegany returns much of its production next year, though the loss of Bratton, a 1,000-yard rusher, will sting. The Campers graduate only six seniors in Bratton, Clay Brode, Keiden Fazenbaker, Brendan Hogamier, Nathan Snyder and Alex Kennell.

“We’ll look forward at next year soon, we’ll take two weeks here to decompress,” Hansel said. “I think the numbers are climbing with what we have in our pee-wee levels, and I think we’ll continue to grow through that.

“There’s talent coming, we just have to foster it at the lower levels and middle school. I think we have guys on the staff willing to do that, we just have to commit back to a winning culture.”

Fort Hill moves into the state quarterfinals where it’ll host Perryville, which defeated Green Street Academy, 17-16, on Saturday in an East Region co-championship.

The Sentinels lost to Perryville, 20-14 in overtime, in the teams’ only meeting during the 2011 playoffs at Greenway Avenue Stadium.

“We sent a couple scouts down today to get film on them,” Alkire said. “Gonna reach out to them tonight to see if they want to trade a couple extra films. Don’t really have any idea of what they do.

“I know they came up here in 2011 and beat us with a team that we thought was going to win a state championship, so we can’t take them lightly. We have to avenge that ‘11 loss.”