BALTIMORE — Big plays and turnovers have been Fort Hill’s Achilles heel against Dunbar. They reared their ugly head again Friday.
The game’s most consequential swing had both.
Fort Hill was looking for a score and the lead late in the first half trailing 12-7. In an instant, the momentum was sucked out of the Sentinel sideline, as Jabari Torbit jumped a route and ran 80 yards for a touchdown.
The Sentinels had three turnovers in total, and Dunbar exploded for touchdowns of 80, 64 and 53 yards to defeat Fort Hill, 26-13, on Friday at Hughes Memorial Stadium at Morgan State University.
“I thought that we went toe-to-toe with them throughout the course of the game, we just gave up the big play,” Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire said. “That’s something we warned them about. You look back historically at this game, the big plays have always killed us.”
Dunbar (2-0) extended its state-leading win streak to 39 games. Fort Hill (1-1) lost for the first time in 22 contests.
Dunbar pushed its lead in the head-to-head to 6-1 with its fifth consecutive triumph. The Sentinels’ lone victory over the Poets came in the 1997 Class 2A title game.
Torbit’s touchdown came with only 35 seconds left in the half and Fort Hill facing a third and 2 on the Dunbar 20.
“Our linebackers haven’t really been getting in the flat,” Dunbar head coach Michael Carter Sr. said. “We made the change, brought Jabari in, and he did what we asked him to do.”
Fort Hill fumbled in each half, and the Sentinels’ line looked overmatched against an athletic Dunbar defensive front. Twenty-two runs went for two or fewer yards.
Fort Hill ran the ball 51 times for 196 yards.
“The offensive line needs to come back and start to really dig a little bit deeper, and work a little bit harder,” Alkire said. “I think the moment was a little too big for them tonight. They’re very young. They started overthinking things, and when you overthink things in football you’re slow off the ball.”
Dunbar out-gained Fort Hill, 314-219, and Fort Hill had more first downs 11-10. The Sentinels controlled the time of possession 30:34 to 17:26.
The Sentinel defense limited Dunbar to 78 yards on 17 carries, led by Cole Floyd’s 68 yards on 10 carries.
Jabril Daniels, making his return trip to Baltimore along with twin brother Gamil, carried the ball 28 times for 132 yards. His heavy work load took its toll, and the senior struggled with cramps throughout the second half.
The Sentinels took a 7-6 lead on a 20-yard touchdown reception by Carson Bender on a wheel route with 6:43 to go in the second quarter. The pass from Nash Cassell came on fourth and 8.
Fort Hill needed just four plays to go 22 yards, set up by a low snap on a punt and a big hit by Jabril Daniels on the specialist.
Dunbar only needed two plays to answer. Savion Witherspoon linked up with Normauri Johnson for a 64-yard score at 5:59.
The Poets also used a long pass play for their first touchdown. Witherspoon hit Jalen Gause in stride for a 53-yard score with 42 seconds left in the opening quarter.
“Once we knew we could control the line of scrimmage,” Carter said, “they started stacking the line, looking for a crease, and that’s why we took some shots up top.”
Dunbar, which doesn’t kick extra points, failed on its first two 2-point tries, but Johnson found the end zone on a conversion run after Torbit’s long return for a 20-7 halftime lead.
Witherspoon tossed a third touchdown in the third quarter, an 18-yard fade to Gause on third down to put the Poets ahead 26-8 with 3:30 on the clock.
Fort Hill had momentum minutes before.
Dunbar punted from deep in its own territory, but a return into Poets’ territory was negated by an illegal crackback block.
A Fort Hill fumble one play later gave Dunbar the ball on the Sentinels’ 38, and the Poets needed just five plays for their fourth score.
Fort Hill responded with a 16-play, 77-yard touchdown drive, capped by a 10-yard Bender run with 6:10 left in the fourth quarter. After a failed two-point try, the Sentinels trailed 26-13.
The series worked in Dunbar’s favor, however, eating up 9:20 on the clock.
Witherspoon completed 9 of 18 passes for 236 yards and three touchdowns. He would’ve been more efficient if not for seven drops by his receivers.
Gause had two receptions for 71 yards, Johnson had one grab for 64, Brian Collins totaled 57 yards on four catches and Gregory Cooper caught two passes for 44 yards.
“We need to do better defending in the air,” Alkire said. “It wasn’t the whole game. It was defending on the edge. It was a blown cover by the safety. You just can’t give up those points.
“First half, a missed tackle, blown coverage, pick-six. That’s 20 points.”
Fort Hill recovered two fumbles in the second half. The first was corralled by Noah House on the Poets’ first series, and the second was scooped up by Jeremiah Babo on the Fort Hill goal line late in the fourth quarter.
Fort Hill got the ball back with a little more than four minutes left on its own five but didn’t have enough time to get anything going.
The Sentinels have a short turnaround, as they host Southern on Thursday at 6 p.m.
Fort Hill wasn’t ready to beat Dunbar, but the team that showed up to Morgan State on Friday won’t be the same that Alkire hopes finishes its season in Annapolis for a fourth straight season.
“We did make those mistakes, but every single time, those guys owned those mistakes,” Alkire said. “You faced a great opponent, you hung in there.
“This was a measuring stick, and right now we don’t measure up to Dunbar like we had hoped that we would. We have an opportunity to roll off another 12 wins and win a state championship.”