CUMBERLAND — Fort Hill raced out to a 48-0 lead by halftime and never looked back, holding Northern to negative yardage in the first half, and winning in the Class 1A West Region Co-Final, 48-6, on Friday at Greenway Avenue Stadium.
The Sentinel defense played lights-out, forcing Northern to punt in its first six drives — the Huskies’ final two first-half drives ended in a fumble recovered by Fort Hill and an incomplete pass on second down to send the teams to the locker rooms.
“I thought it was a great game, lots of kids got involved,” said Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire. “We spread the ball around to a number of different kids. The defense played lights out. I’m really happy with how our kids played.”
After the Huskies’ first three-and-out, Fort Hill needed just one play to find points as Jabril Daniels darted 44 yards untouched. Cooper Silber booted the first of his six point-after tries for a 7-0 lead at 9:42. Daniels finished as the Sentinels’ leading rusher with 88 yards on eight carries.
“They’re very dominant on the line of scrimmage,” Northern head coach Phil Carr said. “They’re very physical. We haven’t played Fort Hill a ton of times, but the games we have played, this is definitely their best offensive line that I’ve seen. Their backs are good too but, man, when you have a great line like that it makes your backs a whole lot better too.”
The Sentinels doubled their lead at the 6:24 mark on a 41-yard pass from Deshaun Brown to Tristan Ross.
Fort Hill had a pair of touchdowns called back on back-to-back holding penalties on its next drive, but Steven Spencer scored on an 11-yard shovel pass from Brown to make it 21-0 in the final minute of the first period.
Spencer’s touchdown came a few plays after the Sentinels added to their book of tricks in the offensive playbook with a double-wing setup that featured two halfbacks to the right of the offensive line cutting inside to block for Daniels, who gained 13 yards.
“We do try to incorporate a few things,” Alkire said. “We may see an opponent coming up that isn’t too familiar with us and we like to show them as much as possible. Coach (Richie) Shook, he’s an internet guy. He sees some things here and there. Usually they’re (San Francisco) 49ers things, and I’m a 49ers fan, so when he comes to me and says, ‘Hey, the 49ers ran this,’ I figure we’ll give it a try. Coach Shook has done a great job all year mixing in some new, modern stuff with the traditional Wing-T stuff. There’s a good mix of run and pass. The offense has done a lot of really good things lately.”
Carson Bender scored the first two touchdowns of the second quarter on runs of 27 and 15 yards before Ross got his second score on a 32-yard scamper.
Gamil Daniels, who was Fort Hill’s second-leading rusher with three carries for 57 yards, capped off the Sentinels’ scoring with a 33-yard run 35 ticks before halftime.
At the break, the Fort Hill defense limited Northern to minus 16 yards while the offense racked up 13 first downs and 341 yards of total offense.
“We’re really good defensively,” Alkire said. “Our kids are really physical and they fly to the football. That does it on most nights.”
The lopsided score allowed the Sentinels to give some much-needed game time to their second- and third-string players, which will help them in the long run, especially with an offensive line that features five seniors.
“It’s really important to get all those kids in there,” Alkire said. “I wish more coaches would do it. It’s really critical for those guys that come out here and practice every day to get some game time. I know the starters don’t necessarily like it because they want to be out there as much as they possibly can. But it is important to get those younger kids out there to get the game experience because you’re going to need to rely on them in the upcoming seasons.”
After Fort Hill’s opening second-half drive ended in a punt, the Huskies avoided a seventh third-and-out when Kyle Broadwater gained 15 yards on third-and-3 for Northern’s first first down at 5:20 in the third quarter.
“I got on them a little bit (at halftime),” Carr said. “I told them before the game all I expect is effort. If it ain’t good enough, it ain’t good enough. I didn’t think we played 11 guys with effort. I thought there were some out there giving it their all, but a couple guys, I don’t know. We had a heart-to-heart at halftime and I thought we played a little better; but, you don’t know, because you’re playing against their second and third string.”
Broadwater had the Huskies’ lone touchdown on a 45-yard scamper with 4:05 to play.
Northern’s season ends at 6-5.
“Our effort was OK,” Carr said. “I didn’t like our effort too much in the first half after we got down. We don’t tackle well. It just hurts when you don’t have a lot of kids and you can’t drill tackling in practice all the time because you’re trying to keep kids healthy.
“We have so many guys that are hurt and playing tonight. We had three seniors in shoulder braces that were not missing this game. Jared and Kyle have played the whole year with messed-up shoulders. Most kids would’ve packed it in, but they played.”
All in all, the Sentinels outgained Northern, 411-98, with 336 yards on 30 carries. Brown was 3 of 4 for 75 yards through the air.
Fort Hill (10-0), who will be the top overall seed in Class 1A after the state reseeds the remaining 16 teams, will host No. 16 Havre de Grace next week in the state quarterfinals.
Havre de Grace trailed Boonsboro 28-20 Friday night with 2:57 to play, but rallied to win in regulation, 35-28.
“Their expectation is a state championship,” Alkire said of his team. “That’s been the expectation since 1975 (when Maryland implemented state championship playoffs). These guys expect to be in the mix come December. It’s keeping their focus and taking it one game at a time.”