CUMBERLAND — Three of Fort Hill’s first five plays went for touchdowns, and it didn’t slow down from there.
Leading 21-0 after one quarter, the Sentinels (8-3) added 42 points in the second quarter and coasted to a 77-12 victory over Green Street Academy in Friday’s Class 1A quarterfinal playoff game at Greenway Avenue Stadium.
“Really happy with the way we played,” Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire said. “Played with a lot of intensity, lots of credit to Green Street for coming out and hanging in there. Lots of great players on that team, I’m really happy with the win.”
The 77 points are a new single-game Sentinel record, passing the 75 scored against USO in 2017.
After recovering an onside kick to start the game, the Sentinels only needed two plays to open the scoring.
Noah House ran a play-action play and found Landen Richardson for a 41-yard touchdown.
On Fort Hill’s next drive, Braelyn Younger had two carries for a combined 77 yards, including a 49-yard touchdown run.
He finished with 162 yards on only nine carries and two touchdowns.
After another three-and-out from the Chargers (8-4), the Sentinels only needed one play from scrimmage on the ensuing drive.
House went deep to Carson Bender for a 42-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 21-0.
“That’s been one of our big keys all week long,” Alkire said. “Preaching come out with fire, come out with with intensity. Get a quick start on teams and it paid a lot of dividends for us.”
On the opening play of the second quarter, House went deep and connected with Younger for a 42-yard scoring strike.
House threw his fourth touchdown of the first half on the next drive after connecting with Jameson Powell-Morris for 33 yards.
On the next play from scrimmage, Sean Watts took a toss 80 yards to the house to put the Chargers on the board.
Watts led Green Street with 112 yards on 12 carries and a touchdown.
Kyler Miller added to Fort Hill’s lead on a 23-yard pick-six less than a minute later.
Bender scored off a shovel pass from House, while Younger added another score from 18 out.
House threw five passes, all for touchdowns, in the half for 163 yards.
“I think that’s what Green Street tried to do tonight was try to stop the run,” Alkire said, noting the passing game added a new element to the offense. “That opened up the pass, there was no safety. Noah’s a really good quarterback at standing in the pocket and moving his feet, looking down field and finding open receivers. He can do that all night long, he’s a phenomenal quarterback.”
Channing Logsdon added a 26-yard pick-six.
At halftime, the Sentinels led 63-6 and had out-gained the Chargers 342-49.
In the third quarter, Levi House scored on a 49-yard pick-six.
In the fourth quarter, Neek Taylor scored on a handoff up the middle from 58 yards out.
Logan Stuckey scored on a 39-yard touchdown run to conclude the scoring for Green Street.
Stuckey finished with 94 rushing yards and a score on nine carries.
Fort Hill finished with 404 yards of offense, with 426 on the ground and 158 passing.
The Chargers were held to 186 yards and finished 1 of 9 passing for three yards with three interceptions.
Fort Hill will host Perryville in the semifinals next week.
The Panthers (8-4) beat Havre De Grace 38-10 in the quarterfinals.
It’s a rematch of last season’s semifinal, in which the Sentinels overcame a 21-7 deficit to win 24-21.