Fort Hill routs Allegany, 39-0, for 16th straight Homecoming win

Nov. 3, 2024
by Alex Rychwalski

CUMBERLAND — Fort Hill made the necessary adjustments at halftime to blow Allegany away, but the Sentinels’ defense required no adjusting.

Allegany could scarcely muster a first down and failed to do so until the fourth quarter, its lone conversion. It wasn’t due to explosive individual plays or turnovers forced by Fort Hill, rather a masterclass in team defense.

Fort Hill held Allegany to just 37 yards of total offense, and Jabril Daniels rushed for 108 yards and three touchdowns to guide the Sentinels to a 39-0 rout on Saturday at Greenway Avenue Stadium — their 16th straight in Homecoming.

“It was a really hard-fought game,” Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire said. “Allegany gave us everything they had. We were just happy to get into halftime and make a few adjustments, and our kids responded in the second half.”

Fort Hill improved to 67-42-4 overall against Allegany and 56-29-3 in Homecoming/Turkey Day games.

The Sentinels have a 20-game winning streak against the Campers, including the playoffs.

“You don’t ever want to lose to your rival, so to come out in Homecoming and win that many times in a row, it’s a big deal,” Alkire said. “It’s not just this group here, it’s the last 16 groups. We want to keep those traditions alive and keep this run going as long as we can.”

For the time being, Fort Hill’s record stands at 7-2, though the Sentinels will likely have to forfeit five games for using an ineligible player in accordance with Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association rules.

Fort Hill appealed the decision to the MPSSAA and is awaiting a ruling. It’s expected to come on Monday before the state playoff seeding is finalized.

If the forfeitures stand, Fort Hill will drop to 2-7 and be the No. 6 seed in the Class 1A West Region playoffs, pitted against its old rival Allegany (4-5), seeded third, for a rematch in the first round at Greenway on Friday.

The approximate 4,500 fans in attendance Saturday were treated to a pristine afternoon of football, with a game-time temperature of 57 degrees, little to no wind and not a cloud in the sky.

The product on the field held up its end of the bargain for a time, but Fort Hill scored 27 answered points after halftime to pull away.

The shutout was the fifth in the last 30 years of Homecoming, all by Fort Hill.

“I mean, we’re going to halftime 12-0. Should have been 9-0, 7-0, but going to 12-0, you feel pretty good defensively, but you don’t feel good offensively,” Allegany head coach Bryan Hansel said.

“So we gotta get back to the drawing board and try to move the football. We knew we wanted to shorten the game, but when you don’t move the football, it doesn’t get very short.”

The Sentinels — who led 2-0 after the first quarter, 12-0 at the half and 25-0 after three periods — finished with significant edges in total offense (358-37), first downs (14-1) and time of possession (28:28-19:32).

Daniels was named Offensive Player of the Game, and his teammate Nick Willison, who ended with five tackles (two for loss), was awarded Defensive Player of the Game.

Daniels becomes the fourth player in history to repeat as Homecoming’s top offensive player, joining Fort Hill alums C.G. Wilson (1986-87), Brandon Walker (‘92-93) and Josh Page (‘96-97).

The Sentinels’ senior back has drawn comparisons to Page, and Daniels is approaching his school and area record for touchdowns. Daniels’ total rose to 65 after Saturday, six short of Page’s mark.

Allegany held Daniels to just 32 yards on 11 carries in the first half, but Daniels broke free for 76 yards after the intermission, including runs of 49 and 29 yards.

On Daniels’ longest jaunt, the 5-foot-11, 190-pound bruiser ran over an Allegany linebacker and made a man miss in the secondary.

“First half, I felt like I was rushing everything,” said Daniels, who scored a Homecoming record five touchdowns last year. “I was trying to get downhill quicker than I should’ve. My coaches showed me on film what I was doing wrong. I just knew I had to fix my mistakes.”

Carson Bender and Nash Cassell scored rushing touchdowns for Fort Hill in the second half, Bobby Brauer made a 43-yard field goal and the Sentinels benefitted from a high snap out of the end zone by Allegany for a safety in the first quarter.

Brauer was also 4 for 4 on extra points.

Bender had 56 yards rushing on eight carries. Tristan Ross had five carries for 36 yards.

Fort Hill’s Braelyn Younger blocked a punt, and Mason Bennett recovered a fumble.

The Sentinels ran for 261 yards on 40 carries, and Noah House completed 6 of 9 passes for 89 yards. Wyatt Ranker made three receptions for 62 yards.

Jackson Resh was Allegany’s leading ball carrier with eight carries for 26 yards. He had a team-high nine tackles (one for loss).

Allegany’s Devin Tinnen made seven stops and had three tackles for loss, and Khiante Bible and Amanni Blowe ended with seven stops each.

Fort Hill won the toss and deferred, and Allegany faced a 4th-and-2 on its own 31 and elected to roll the dice. The Campers fed their bellcow Resh, and he was stopped short for a turnover on downs.

The decision puzzled at the time but became clearer as Allegany struggled to snap the ball to its punter throughout.

“We were always going to go for it on fourth down,” Hansel said. “If you saw the next drive, we’ve had snapping issues all season on punts. It was kind of my opinion, and I ran it by the coaches, but we agreed if it was 4th-and-2 or less, we were going to go for it.

“We thought, ‘Do we roll the dice and go for it, or watch the snap happen?’ All game we kind of held our breath on the snaps. We just thought it was the better choice at that point.”

Unbeknownst to the crowd, the nine yards the Campers gained on their opening series signified their longest drive until their final series, which featured an 11-yard run by Blowe with 5:55 remaining for Allegany’s lone first down.

Allegany’s drives ended with a turnover on downs, safety, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, blocked punt, lost fumble and turnover on downs.

Of Allegany’s 32 plays, 23 went for two or fewer yards.

Remarkably, Willison was Fort Hill’s leading tackler with just five stops, a testament to the Sentinels’ team defense and how quickly they got Allegany off the field.

“I think we did a really good job of being physical towards the second half,” Willison said. “We started out slow, but after halftime we started to come together and became a team more. Once we started getting quicker off the ball, it really created havoc for them.”

Allegany was able to stop Fort Hill on the goal line after its early turnover on downs, but the Campers went three-and-out and snapped the ball out of the end zone on the punt for a safety.

Fort Hill started its next series on the Allegany 41 after the free kick. Seven plays later, Daniels found the end zone for a four-yard score and a 9-0 lead.

The Sentinels stole three points late in the half after taking over on their own 24-yard line and 1:05 remaining. Brauer’s kick at the buzzer made it 12-0 at the half.

After the teams traded punts twice each to open the second half, Fort Hill scored four touchdowns on 10 plays on drives that that spanned just 51, 30, 29 and 16 yards.

Daniels scored touchdowns of 29 and two yards, Bender had a two-yard TD burst and Nash Cassell powered over the goal line from a yard away on a quarterback sneak.

“They were really amped up to start the game,” Alkire said. “It’s hard to say you were overaggressive in football, but I think it was a matter of, ‘Calm down, relax, play our style of football and things will take care of themselves.’ They did.”

Fort Hill used House and Cassell at quarterback intermittently throughout the game, turning to House when operating out of the shotgun and Cassell under center.

Less than a week after meeting for the 103rd time, Fort Hill and Allegany are likely to square off once more to open the playoffs.

Let the chess match begin.

“We know we want that game to be three possessions at half and get out of here,” Hansel said. “So how do we move the football to make that happen? How do we make it harder for them defensively?

“Because they’ll have a good game plan for us. They’ll change things based on our defense. We know once they get up 18, they go, ‘OK, base stuff on offense and defense and we can get out of here.’ So we just got to go back and replay everything and prepare for next week.”