Fort Hill cruises over Southern, 74-0, in playoff opener

Nov. 5, 2022
by Alex Rychwalski

CUMBERLAND — Fort Hill ran just 13 plays during the first half Friday — that equated to eight touchdowns and 285 yards of offense.

A 53-0 halftime lead allowed the Sentinels, seeded No. 2 in Class 1A West, to rotate in a collection of players off the bench and there was no letup, as Fort Hill cruised to a 74-0 win over seventh-seeded Southern in the region semifinals on Friday night.

“I thought we played great,” Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire said. “Slow start, but we were able to pick things up. Gotta clean up the special teams stuff a little bit.”

Fort Hill (9-1) entered the playoff matchup wanting to get more players involved, exit injury-free and clean up the self-inflicted mistakes.

The Sentinels were as balanced as can be Friday. Seven different players scored touchdowns, led by Tavin Willis with three. Tanner Wertz and Tyler Hopkins scored twice each, and Jabril Daniels, Shane Welsh, Mikey Allen and Evan Scell crossed the end zone once.

No Fort Hill player had more than four carries, which was Hopkins, who came on during the second half as a substitute and ran for 65 yards. Wertz led the way with 115 yards on three carries, Allen had 64 on three touches, Welsh racked up 58 on three gives and Willis gained 39 on three runs.

Overall, Fort Hill outgained Southern, 393-100, and had a 15-6 edge in first downs.

“These guys are guys that run scout team, and they do a nice job every single day,” Alkire said of his subs after halftime, singling out Scell, who caused the bench to erupt in celebration after his nine-yard scamper in the fourth. Hopkins had touchdowns of 38 and 11 yards off the bench.

“It’s nice to see those guys not only get in the game and play well, but score.”

As for the Sentinels’ health, All-Area performers Carter Hess and Anthony Palmisano were in street clothes on the sideline, but Alkire said both will be ready to go for the region co-finals next week. Fort Hill sat out “five or six kids” for precautionary reasons.

Palmisano twisted his ankle against Allegany in Homecoming after intercepting a pass.

Fort Hill was only penalized four times, but all four were big ones, totaling 55 yards. A 70-yard punt return by Willis and a 43-yard TD run from Allen were erased by blocking penalties.

However, the Sentinels cleaned up those mistakes after halftime, committing no penalties during the second half.

“Last week, we went back to watch the film, and the vast majority of the penalties we had were actually penalties,” Alkire said. “I’m sure when we go back these will be too.

“We need to do a better job of moving our feet. We’re big, strong, powerful kids, and sometimes we want to go for a big shot. When we do that, we don’t bring our lower bodies too, and the only thing we can do is reach and hold.”

Daniels started the scoring on a nine-yard touchdown run on the Sentinels’ first play from scrimmage. Fort Hill got a short field after a Welsh blocked punt.

Southern followed with its longest drive of the half, a 10-play, 45-yard series highlighted by a 28-yard run by Gavin Warnick on a fake punt, but the series ended with a punt. Warnick ended with 56 yards on 25 carries.

The Rams’ first seven drives ended with punts — the lone exception ended with a failed fake punt on their own 14-yard line late in the half.

“We started off well,” Southern head coach Jon Nazelrod said. “Whenever you start off like that, you’ve got hope. And if you’ve got hope, you’ve got everything. And then things started going wrong, and one mistake leads to another mistake. Eventually you get 74.

“It is what it is, and I hate that saying, but what are you going to do?

“We just have a different situation than Fort Hill right now, and that’s okay. It was an honor to come down here and get to play in a playoff game. Not everybody sees it that way.”

Fort Hill seemingly featured a different back on every series, as the Sentinels took turns on who would be the bellcow leading to the eventual touchdown.

Welsh was the man on Fort Hill’s second series, rumbling 49 yards inside the five-yard line before scoring from two yards out.

Willis had his turn on the next drive, scoring on the first play after Southern punted the ball out of bounds on its own 25, for an 18-0 Fort Hill lead after a quarter. Willis had nowhere to go on the ride side, and he reversed field before jogging into the end zone.

The Sentinels struggled on extra points early, failing to convert the first and third tries, sandwiching a two-point try on a run stopped short by Southern.

After that, Quinn Cohen converted five straight PATs, and Cooper Silber drilled a trio in a row to end the game.

Fort Hill had another short field on its fourth drive on the Southern 35, and again, the Sentinels needed just one play to score. Wertz took his first carry to the house.

It was Allen’s turn next. The senior had a 43-yard touchdown run brought back by a downfield blocking penalty, but he scored on the very next play on a 28-yard scamper.

The short Fort Hill fields were due in part to Southern’s reluctance to kick to Allen or Willis, opting instead to boot the ball out of bounds to prevent a return.

The Rams finally decided to kick to the pair on their fifth punt, and Willis promptly cruised 53 yards into the end zone.

After another Southern three-and-out — it had five before halftime — Willis returned a punt more than 70 yards to the house, but another penalty erased the score.

With its worst field position of the half on its own 19, Fort Hill needed just two plays to score. Wertz took a fullback trap, ran down the left side and juked out one final would-be tackler to score a 73-yard touchdown run.

Trailing 46-0 in the final seconds, Southern attempted a fake punt on its own 14 and lost a yard. Willis found the Sentinels’ seventh and final TD of the first half with a 13-yard scamper one play later.

With the score in hand, Fort Hill emptied its bench after halftime, as the Sentinels cruised to a playoff win.

Fort Hill will face the winner of Allegany and Clear Spring, which play on Saturday afternoon, in the Class 1A West Region co-Finals next week.

“Can’t wait to play them again,” Alkire said of the prospect of playing Allegany a second time. “They gave us their best shot last week. I don’t feel like our kids responded great to it. Hopefully we respond a little better this time.

“Allegany should have all the confidence in the world. They went toe-to-toe with us. If one play goes one way or another, it could have went a different way.”