No. 2 Fort Hill dominates the trenches, shuts out New Oxford, 28-0

Oct. 24, 2022
by Kyle Bennett

NEW OXFORD, Pa. — Sometimes an early play is so big, it feels like a game-winning play. On Saturday evening, Mikey Allen came up with two of those plays in the second quarter, along with some help from his friends up front, as No. 2 Fort Hill shut out New Oxford, 28-0.

Allen’s big plays, 141 yards on the ground by Tavin Willis, an injection at fullback by Jabril Daniels and utter dominance in the trenches by the Fort Hill offensive and defensive lines made for the perfect recipe for the Sentinels in their penultimate regular season game of 2022.

“It was a great performance,” Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire said. “The kids were definitely focused. They came out and played extremely hard. It was a very physical game. I mentioned in the postgame locker room celebration that we may have won by 28 points, but our bodies won’t feel like they won by that many points.

“New Oxford was a very physical team. Obviously they have a talented team offensively, but they have a lot of physicality on defense. So it took a lot of effort from a lot of kids to have the success we had tonight.”

Staked to a 7-0 lead, Allen gained 10 yards to move the chains on the sixth play of the second quarter. That run set up the Sentinels at the New Oxford 18, where Allen took the handoff and ran right, but was met at the edge by a wall of Colonials.

Instead of cutting his losses, the senior tailback doubled back and found a massive hole up the left side, winning the race to the pylon. After a New Oxford offside penalty on the point-after try, Allen ran in the two-point try for a 15-0 lead with 8:47 to go in the first half.

Later in the frame, the Colonials began their fourth drive — having previously made it no further than the Fort Hill 29 — at their own 32 after recovering a fumble with 5:43 to play before the break.

After a diving catch by Evan Schriver for a 35-yard gain, New Oxford finally reached the red zone for the first time a few plays later when it converted on a fourth-and-2 by successfully drawing the Sentinels offside.

Needing some points — preferably of the touchdown variety — to try to mount a comeback, the Colonials opted to go for it on fourth-and-3 from the Fort Hill 11.

New Oxford went back to the well with a pass on a slant pattern, which it had mostly had success with. That is, until Allen had something to say about it. The senior defensive back jumped the route and intercepted the pass before falling into the end zone for a touchback.

“It was a really important play,” Alkire said of the interception. “It showed a little resiliency by our guys. New Oxford was a good opponent and had us pressed to the wall a couple of times, especially there in the first half. That interception allowed us to take a two-score lead into the half, milk the clock in the third and put it away in the fourth.”

The interception was the first step in a masterclass in clock management. Step two was stretching a drive into the fourth quarter that began at the Fort Hill 8 with 5:43 on the clock.

The Sentinels did just that. Three yards to Daniels here, a nine-yard pass to Allen there, with back-to-back eight-yard runs by Willis and Tanner Wertz sprinkled in.

If it weren’t have been for the offensive line throwing around the Colonials and Willis’ blazing speed, the drive might still be going next Saturday morning before Homecoming.

Instead, Willis broke free on a 47-yard touchdown on the third play of the fourth quarter to cap off a 14-play drive with 11:11 to play.

Daniels put the exclamation point on things with an eight-yard touchdown run with 2:03 to play, as Quinn Cohen’s PAT put the score at its final.

Daniels was one of four Fort Hill players to carry the ball at least seven times, toting the rock 10 times for 46 yards.

“We had success both inside and out, Alkire said of the rushing attack. “We had a spark from Jabril Daniels who doesn’t carry the ball a lot for us, but he’s been getting more reps these last three weeks and has made the most of it. He’s starting to come into his own. It gives us more of that power run we’ve been looking for. Kind of hitting the body blows down the middle to soften up things on the outside.”

Although New Oxford is a pass-first offense, the Sentinels limited the Colonials to little semblance of a run game, as the hosts ran the ball 18 times for 31 yards, including a 12-yard run on the final play of the game.

On the flip side, stuffing the run — and being able to mix up the running back trio of Allen, Willis and Wertz with Daniels at fullback — helped limit the passing game. New Oxford QB Jett Moore was 8 of 22 for 137 yards.

“I think we held them to maybe five to 10 yards rushing in the first half,” Alkire said. “Getting that two-touchdown lead, it allowed us to change up defensively in the second half. They had some success running some slants and forced us to adjust.

“So getting up two scores and basically running out the entire third quarter, we didn’t have to throw the ball in the second half. So by stopping the run, we were able to slow down the pass as well.”

Fort Hill ran to the tune of 284 yards on 45 attempts, with Willis leading in rushes (16) and yards (141) — he also had the Sentinels’ opening score on a 23-yard run at 4:28 in the first quarter. Allen tacked on seven rushes for 52 yards and Wertz had nine carries for 25 yards.

“We have most of our running backs go two ways, offensively and defensively, I think all of them do,” said Alkire. “So being able to get Jabril in there and running some of those fullback reps and rotating other backs around also allows us to be stronger on defense as well. When we can rotate those backs, it keeps them a little more fresh on defense. When the other team wants to throw ball, we can stay in man coverage and not have to worry about guys getting tired.”

Fort Hill (7-1) rounds out the regular season next Saturday with a dance with Allegany (6-2) at Greenway Avenue Stadium. Kickoff in the 100th meeting between Cumberland’s two public schools is 12:30 p.m.

“Knowing that it’s Homecoming, there’s always a lot of distractions,” Alkire said. “But the one thing you always come back to is it’s your cross-town opponent and cross-town rival. The focus is going to be there. This is a group of kids that generally hasn’t lost to that side of town. They want to be sure to keep it that way.

“Coming home on the bus, the kids were already talking about what Alco likes to do, how we can match up with them, things we might be able to exploit, things of that nature. It’s a good time for the kids. A lot of the memories they will have from their football careers will come from this week.”