Carmical, Briar Woods stop No. 1 Fort Hill, 28-7

Oct. 5, 2024
by Alex Rychwalski

CUMBERLAND — When Briar Woods head coach Mike Burnett needed a play, his quarterback Brady Carmical made one.

The game’s most crucial one came on a 4th-and-16 from Briar Woods’ own 49 midway through the third quarter.

Fort Hill had just scored its lone touchdown on a 30-yard pitch and catch from Nash Cassell to Carson Bender to bring then Sentinels to within 14-7. Despite a false start and a delay of game to back Briar Woods up on fourth down, Burnett trusted his players and rolled the dice.

Carmical connected with Dylan Duffy up the seam for a 24-yard pass, and on 4th-and-8 later in the drive, the senior Navy commit scrambled and found Jax McIntosh for a 25-yard touchdown to stun Fort Hill.

Fort Hill had a window, but in the end, Briar Woods’ dominance on the line and the star performances of Carmical and Duffy handed the top-ranked Sentinels a 28-7 defeat Friday at Greenway Avenue Stadium.

“It wasn’t the best-played game on our part,” Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire said. “We made way too many mistakes. We were not the more physical team tonight. We allowed them to take it to us.”

Fort Hill fell to 3-2 with the loss and had its 23-game home winning streak snapped.

It also ensures the Sentinels will finish a season with multiple defeats for the first time since 2019. It’s the first year they’ve lost more than one regular-season game since 2012.

It was a reversal of fortunes from a year ago when Fort Hill made the long bus ride to Ashburn, Virginia, and left with a 28-0 trouncing of the 5A School.

Briar Woods (3-2) is the alma mater of former All-American Penn State gunslinger Trace McSorley, and it had a quarterbacking performance reminiscent of their past great on Friday night.

Carmical had his top two receivers and his top running back out with injury and still managed to complete 14 of 27 passes for 161 yards and four touchdowns.

He also led the Falcons in rushing with 112 yards on 18 carries.

“He trusted his receivers, put a lot of tight balls in tonight, and we had some kids make big plays,” Burnett said. “He’s had to pick up the slack losing a couple receivers. Our tailback has been out, so he has to run a lot more.

“He’s our best running back, our best thrower and our best linebacker.”

The other story of the game was Fort Hill’s inability to move the football.

Briar Woods limited the Sentinels to only 98 yards rushing on 33 carries, 128 yards overall and six total first downs. The Falcons gained 292 total yards with the ball, and had a 27:15-20:45 edge in time of possession.

All-Area back Jabril Daniels was held to 57 yards on 19 carries. He rushed for 184 yards and three touchdowns against the Falcons last season.

Burnett said the experience of seeing Fort Hill’s Wing-T offense, which it doesn’t see much in its area, provided vital insight in game-planning for the Sentinels.

“They lost a lot of linemen from last year, we knew that. They manhandled us,” Burnett said. “We felt like they weren’t going to be able to do that this year, and they were going to try to scheme us with their pulling, their traps, their bucks.

“They do such a good job up here. It’s fun to watch, their discipline. We tried to make them throw the ball. That was the difference. We put a lot of guys in the box and just challenged them to throw it.”

After Carmical’s third touchdown to McIntosh with 3:41 left in the third quarter, Briar Woods secured the victory with a nine-play, 54-yard touchdown drive in the fourth.

Carmical connected with Duffy for a 14-yard pass for a touchdown on a corner fade with 8:27 to play.

That scoring drive was Briar Wood’s second-longest of the game. The Falcons’ longest was a 57-yarder during the third quarter.

Briar Woods utilized a pair of short fields to lead 14-0 at the half.

The Falcons scored on drives of 36 and 17 yards, benefitting from a risky Fort Hill fourth-down-conversion try and a fumble, respectively.

After both teams traded punts to open the game and Briar Woods punted on its second drive, the Sentinels rolled the dice on 4th-and-2 on their own 37-yard line.

Daniels received the pitch out of the Maryland I, and Briar Woods blew up the play and tackled him for a loss.

“My opinion is, if you can’t get one yard, you don’t deserve the ball,” Alkire said. “I go for it more than most people do, and I’m going to continue to.”

Four plays later, Carmical connected with Colin Capistrant on a fade for a 10-yard touchdown pass with 5:59 left in the second quarter.

Duffy then intercepted Fort Hill’s first pass of the night to set up another short field at the Sentinel 28.

However, it appeared as if Fort Hill would enter halftime with a 7-0 deficit after Daniels tackled Carmical for a loss on a 4th-and-3 play from the Sentinel five-yard line.

With just 1:18 left in the half and taking over on its own eight-yard line, Fort Hill tried to run out the clock but Briar Woods forced a fumble.

The loose ball was recovered by Duffy on the Fort Hill 17 with 40 seconds left in the half.

Three plays later, Carmical found McIntosh for a six-yard touchdown pass with 20 seconds remaining.

Fort Hill pulled to within seven following a four-play, 53-yard series that was capped by a 30-yard pass to Bender with 6:55 to go in the third, but Briar Woods quickly shut that window.

Fort Hill fumbled once in each half. Its second-half giveaway was recovered by Aidan Schaal.

Briar Woods struggled to snap the football after halftime, putting five balls on the turf, but it recovered all of them.

On a night when Fort Hill had all it could handle, it didn’t get any help.

“They got a lot of the breaks,” Alkire said. “They got the bounces, they made the big catches, the big plays. We did not.”

Fort Hill now turns to county rival Mountain Ridge (3-2), which is coming off a one-sided loss of its own after getting routed by Frankfort (5-0), 49-12.

It wasn’t Fort Hill’s night Friday, but Alkire knows there’s still plenty to play for, including a state-record-tying fourth straight state championship.

“You can’t let a loss tonight define your season,” he said. “There’s lots of season to play. We have big goals and have to keep pushing forward.”