CUMBERLAND — With just over two minutes to play and much of the momentum, Hollidaysburg looked poised to make it a one-score game. Braelyn Younger had other plans.
The Fort Hill defensive back read Hollidaysburg’s play call like a book, intercepting the pass at the Sentinels’ 2-yard line, Younger’s second pick of the game, to halt Hollidaysburg’s comeback.
From there, Jabril Daniels ran out the clock and Fort Hill won, 28-14, over the Golden Tigers at Greenway Avenue Stadium on Friday night, handing 5-1 Hollidaysburg its first loss of the season.
“I thought it was a really great, hard-fought game between two really good programs and just really happy that we were able to come out victorious,” said Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire.
Holding Hollidaysburg without an offensive touchdown through three quarters, the Sentinels appeared well on their way to another multi-score victory when Daniels broke free on a 46-yard touchdown run on the second play of the final frame. Bobby Brauer’s point-after at 11:11 made it 28-7.
After picking up a first down in two plays, the Golden Tigers leaned on Mitchell Baronner’s rushing ability on the next six plays that sent Hollidaysburg from its own 38 to Fort Hill’s 24.
A night of shooting itself in the foot continued for Hollidaysburg, as a holding call on the next play brought back a first-down carry and a bad snap on the next play sent the Golden Tigers backward for a second-and-14 from the Fort Hill 25.
“A well-played game by both teams,” Hollidaysburg head coach Homer DeLattre said. “I think there was two really good football teams out there tonight. We had a few mistakes offensively to kill our drives. That hurt us … just too many mistakes to beat a high-class team like that.”
After a pass breakup near the goal line by Gamil Daniels, Carter Muth ran for a first down. Three plays later, Hollidaysburg got to within a pair of scores when Maddox Bainey hit Gavin Bell in the back right corner of the end zone from 9 yards out. Paul Wedel converted his second PAT to make it 28-14 with 5:07 to play.
Rather than kick the onside kick, DeLattre trusted his defense opted to kick the ball deep with a couple of timeouts in his pocket.
The Hollidaysburg defense stood tall, forcing a fourth-and-1 from the Fort Hill 20.
Alkire chose to go for it, and the Sentinels were stuffed at the line for a turnover on downs with 3:59 to play.
The Golden Tigers tried some trickery on the first play from scrimmage, running an end around that lost 8 yards.
The Fort Hill secondary continued its interruptions in the air on second down as Noah House broke up a pass, but Hollidaysburg got a lifeline when Brady Steiner hauled in a 27-yard heave at the Fort Hill 1
A bad snap — the fourth of the game by Hollidaysburg — again sent the Golden Tigers backward on first down.
Two plays later, Bainey was picked off by Younger at the Fort Hill 2 with 2:21 remaining.
“Every possession in the first half included us moving the football other than one drive, and then us having a penalty to set us back,” DeLattre said. “In the second half, same thing happened. Even that right there, if we stopped them, the chance to go 28-21, maybe onside kick, that kind of stuff. We just made too many mistakes to beat a really good team.”
After Hollidaysburg burned its last timeout, Tristan Ross ran 10 yards for a first before Jabril Daniels had a pair of runs to move the chains and allow Fort Hill to kneel out the clock.
The win was Fort Hill’s 23rd in a row at Greenway.
As cagey as the final 11 minutes were for the Sentinels, they controlled the first three quarters.
After forcing a punt on Hollidaysburg’s opening drive, Fort Hill went on a 16-play drive that went 80 yards and spanned nine minutes and 35 seconds. The drive was capped off with a 7-yard touchdown run by Jabril Daniels and PAT by Brauer that gave the Sentinels a 7-0 lead with one second left in the opening frame.
Jabril Daniels carried the rock 28 times for 147 yards with two scores.
“It was a great performance,” Alkire said of Daniels. “You know, he got north and south. There was a few times where he still tried to hit the home run there, especially as we started to struggle a little bit there in the second half. But for the most part, especially early and then closing out the game, it was north-south, and that’s how we want Jabril to run.”
Ross gave the Sentinels a 14-0 lead at halftime with a 52-yard scamper at 7:16 in the second.
The senior tailback finished with 89 yards on nine rushes and had touchdown runs of 68 and 19 yards called back on by holding penalties.
“A lot of that had to do with game plan,” Alkire said of Ross’s performance. “We thought that they would give us some of that stuff, and they kind of gave us what we thought they would. But we still had to take advantage of it. We blocked well tonight, both linemen and backs, and our running backs ran north and south.”
Hollidaysburg forced a punt on the Sentinels’ opening drive in the second half, and a taunting penalty by Fort Hill set the Golden Tigers up at the Fort Hill 35.
But they were unable to take advantage, as Younger intercepted a pass and returned it 14 yards to the Fort Hill 44.
The ensuing drive ended with a 28-yard touchdown pass from Nash Cassell to Wyatt Ranker.
Cassell went 4 of 6 through the air for 62 yards.
“Nash is getting a lot better,” Alkire said. “Nash has really taken his early season struggles to heart, and, man, has had a really big focus on getting better. So it was really good to see him come out here tonight and do positive things.”
Hollidaysburg’s first score came with 1:33 to play in the third quarter when it blocked a punt in the Fort Hill end zone and Ryan Morningstar fell on the ball for a touchdown. Wedel booted the PAT.
The Sentinels outgained Hollidaysburg, 304-216. Both teams had a slew of big-yardage penalties, as the Golden Tigers were flagged eight times for 78 yards and Fort Hill seven times for 70 yards.
Fort Hill (3-1) stays at home next week as it hosts Briar Woods, Virginia.
“I feel a lot better about our team than I did even earlier today,” Alkire said. “This is a really good Hollidaysburg team. And we told them all week that if we didn’t play well that they would beat us. And we may not have played our perfect game, but we played better than we have in the last three weeks. So I feel really happy about that.”