CUMBERLAND — One game at a time, Fort Hill has been trying to make a statement.
The Sentinels set out to do so after a 6-0 loss to Allegany on Sept. 9, and they haven’t lost since — Calvary was the latest victim.
John Reinhardt scored a hat trick, and fourth-ranked Fort Hill held the area’s leading scorer Sammy Scritchfield without a goal, downing second-ranked Calvary, 4-0, in Senior Night on Tuesday at Greenway Avenue Stadium.
“We are trying to make a statement,” Fort Hill head coach Zach Steckman said. “Calvary came out and punched us in the mouth for 10 minutes, but these guys, they’re resilient. One of our words that we say every day is relentless. Be relentless.
“They’re doing their job. That’s a great team that we just beat.”
Fort Hill (8-2) upped its winning streak to seven games. It has allowed just two goals over that span, both on set pieces, and scored 36 times itself.
Calvary (13-2-1) lost for only the second time this season, the other defeat coming to Allegany, 5-3, on Sept. 22. The Eagles had won 10 of 11 games.
Fort Hill led 1-0 at the half but was baited into a series of offsides due to Calvary’s high line near midfield. The Sentinels made the adjustment, scoring three times after halftime.
Fort Hill’s Anthony Palumbo also began to man mark Scritchfield, who has an area-best 37 goals, which led to a 19-2 Sentinel advantage in shots after intermission. Calvary did not have a shot on goal after halftime.
“We probably should have pulled Sammy back, honestly, taking one of their defenders out of the play,” Calvary head coach David Ziler said. “They had one guy on him, on his shoulder, and they had another guy spying on the back.
“They played a good game. They stuffed the box on us. We told our team, the only way you can beat a team that’s going to stuff the box is you’ve got to go wide and drop it back to the 18. And we didn’t do it once the whole second half, so we earned what we earned here and we earned a loss.”
Reinhardt scored Fort Hill’s first goal with 15:54 left in the first half, making a long run down the left side and muscling the ball past Calvary keeper Peyton Poland at the goalmouth.
Poland, who made 11 saves, denied Reinhardt after a similar run in the 46th minute, but the Sentinels made it 2-0 after Liam Hamilton connected with Sam Spencer for a header goal off a long throw-in with 26:28 remaining.
Hamilton also contributed to the next Fort Hill goal. The senior split a pair of Calvary defenders, made a run and found Reinhardt unmarked in the middle of the box with a low cross to make it 3-0 with 13:52 to play.
Reinhardt secured his hat trick with a tremendous individual effort.
The junior had his back to the Calvary goal from 50 yards out, flicked a pass to himself over his shoulder and controlled the ball with his chest to start a long run that ended with his third goal with 5:41 on the clock.
Three of Fort Hill’s goals came in transition, as the Sentinels adjusted to the Eagles’ high line by keeping their forwards on their side of midfield.
“What we wanted to do is just have John (Reinhardt) hold the 50 at all times,” Steckman said. “Our midfield run out off of John, and it worked out. I think we had one offsides here at the end.”
Fort Hill had the edge in shots (27-7), shots on goal (15-2) and corner kicks (5-3). Sentinel keeper Bobby Brauer made two saves for the cleansheet.
Calvary is back in action at Grace Academy on Friday at 4:30 p.m.
Ziler wants the Eagles to rekindle the intensity they played with when they defeated Mountain Ridge, 4-3, in Frostburg on Sept. 18.
“If we don’t figure out how to get some heart and figure out how to not have Sammy have to score all the time, we need other people to do it, it’s going to be hard,” Ziler said. “Teams are just going to put two people on Sammy and block it up.”
Fort Hill (2-1 Cumberland City League) has another shot at top-ranked Allegany (7-0-1, 2-0 City) on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Homecoming.
The Sentinels haven’t won Homecoming since 2021 and can clinch a share of the city title with a victory.
“We’re looking forward to it,” Steckman said. “We know what they’ve got. We know what we’re up against. We’ve got a lot of energy right now. We’ve got a lot of confidence.”