Daniels, Bender lead Fort Hill over Hollidaysburg, 38-21

Sep. 23, 2023
by Kyle Bennett

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. — No matter what gets thrown at the Fort Hill Sentinels, Big Red almost always finds a way to battle through it. Friday night they furthered that notion.

Despite a ton of penalties and the game’s only turnover, the special teams came up big early on, and Jabril Daniels and Carson Bender led the Fort Hill offense with over 100 yards apiece on the ground as the Sentinels took down Hollidaysburg, 38-21, hours after the passing of legendary Fort Hill and Maryland quarterback Mark Manges.

Daniels was the team’s leader in carries (20) and rush yards (141), while Bender had 10 attempts for 117 — both players scored a pair of touchdowns.

Fort Hill blocked a punt on Hollidaysburg’s second drive deep in Golden Tiger territory, with Cooper Silber falling on the ball at the Hollidaysburg 6.

Daniels scored on the ground on the next play, with Silber booting the point-after try at 5:14.

The Golden Tigers responded just over two-and-a-half minutes later with a 1-yard plunge by Jack Steiner, as Paul Wedel’s PAT tied things at 7-7.

With a false start penalty stalling the Sentinels’ ensuing drive, Hollidaysburg recovered a fumble on Fort Hill’s rush on third-and-12. The Sentinels finished with 10 penalties for 80 yards.

With good field position at the Fort Hill 29, the Golden Tigers were called for delay of game before getting a play off on first down.

Three plays later, Wedel lined up for a 45-yard field goal try on the second play of the second quarter, but the Sentinels blocked it, taking over at the Hollidaysburg 46.

Despite some yellow laundry negating a 48-yard touchdown run by Daniels on the ensuing drive, Bender had runs of 10 and 8 yards before a nine-yard run from Daniels preceded a 16-yard TD run by Steven Spencer. Silber’s PAT made it 14-7 in favor of the Sentinels with 6:59 to go before halftime.

The Sentinel defense forced a three-and-out on the next drive, and the Fort Hill offense needed just two plays for Bender to find the end zone from 63 yards out. The PAT was blocked at 3:36.

Fort Hill forced another three-and-out, and then needed only three plays to extend its lead to 28-7 as Spencer gained 35 yards on first down before Daniels scored on a 17-yard run two plays later. Quarterback Deshaun Brown hit Bryson Metz for a two-point pass to give the Sentinels a three-score lead at the break.

Hollidaysburg had a chance to gain some momentum coming out of the locker room as Fort Hill fumbled on its third play from scrimmage, but a Sentinel offensive lineman was able to fall on it.

A four-yard run from Bender on the next play set up fourth-and-6, as Nick Willison took the snap for a fake punt and gain of seven to move the chains.

On the next play, Bender darted 42 yards untouched for a score, a demoralizing blow for the Golden Tigers as Fort Hill took a 35-7 lead following Silber’s PAT at 8:46 in the third.

Hollidaysburg stopped its drought with a two-yard TD run from Maddox Bainey with 1:27 to go in the third, with Wedel’s PAT making it 35-14.

Fort Hill’s ensuing drive ate up 7:07 of fourth-quarter clock, with Silber booting a 31-yard field goal at 4:53.

Bainey closed the scoring with an 18-yard pass to Caden DeLattre with 2:39 to play — Wedel’s PAT was good.

The Sentinels dominated on the ground with 344 yards to Hollidaysburg’s 161. Spencer was Fort Hill’s third-leading rusher with 70 yards on a handful of carries.

Starting quarterback Drew Wyland led the Hollidaysburg ground game with 11 carries for 102 yards, 74 of which came in the first half. The next closest was Blaise Wills with five tries for 29 yards, all of which came in the fourth quarter.

While the Sentinels didn’t complete either of their two passes, the Golden Tigers’ two-quarterback approach resulted in Wyland going 1 of 8 for eight yards and reliever Bainey finishing 6 of 16 for 127 yards.

DeLattre hauled in three passes for 57 yards while four others each caught a pass.

Fort Hill has now won 12 straight, including a forfeit over Southern last week, and 30 of its last 31.

The Sentinels (4-0) will travel to Ashburn, Va., on Friday to take on Briar Woods (4-0), who was idle this week.