ANNAPOLIS — Fort Hill was on the precipice of a record fifth straight state title leading 28-7; the Patuxent giant killers lived up to their reputation.
Patuxent, a year removed from snapping Dunbar’s 51-game winning streak in the Class 2A/1A final, flipped the game on its head in six offensive plays.
Freshman gunslinger Brayden Watson found Coen Boorstein in the end zone with one second left in the first half to make it a 28-14 game.
Peyton Johnson broke free on a 79-yard reception two Panther plays into the second half, and, after a Fort Hill three-and-out, Evan Jones bounded 38 yards across the goal line two snaps later to draw the game level at 28.
The momentum was so palpable it could be cut with a knife, and on Fort Hill’s next series, John Edwards sliced through the Sentinel line and knocked the football up to defensive tackle Jaykiye Dixon, who rumbled 23 yards to the end zone for the decisive touchdown.
Fort Hill battled like the 11-time champion it is, but Patuxent stopped the Sentinels on downs on the Panther 41 with 4:04 to play. The Southern Maryland squad then converted four first downs to ice the game.
Hampered by an injury to star fullback Braelyn Younger early in the third quarter, third-seeded Fort Hill surrendered 28 unanswered points to fall to top-seeded Patuxent, 35-28, in the Class 1A state championship game on Saturday at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
“It was a great game, two great opponents. We knew coming into the game that Patuxent was a great team,” Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire said. “We knew that we had to come out strong. We did. We just weren’t able to finish the job in the second half.”
Fort Hill (9-4) lost in the state championship for the first time since 2017 when it fell to Dunbar, 30-26. The Sentinels won four in a row under Todd Appel before that (2013-16), and they won the last four under Alkire (2021-24).
Patuxent (10-3) captured its third state title Saturday, adding a 2015 Class 2A championship to its consecutive crowns. Its latest came against a Fort Hill team that came in having won nine of the past 11 Class 1A titles.
“First of all, this was absolutely the greatest game that I have ever been a part of,” said Hall of Fame Patuxent head coach Steve Crounse. “Fort Hill never stopped fighting the entire time. They played like the proud program they are.
“Going into this game, watching Fort Hill on film for nine weeks, it really could have gone either way. It was an eyelash away from getting out of hand. We figured out a way at the end of the first half to pull it back.”
Younger, who finished with 119 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries, limped off the field following his first run after the second half. He returned one play later, but he had three more totes in him and was absent from the field on Fort Hill’s final four series and on defense.
Younger ended his storied Fort Hill senior campaign with 2,224 yards and 33 total touchdowns.
“I don’t think we’ve ever faced a back like him,” said Crounse, with his star athlete Jones nodding along in agreement. “He is a high level, elite physical presence. The way they execute on offense up front, they were the best team that we faced as far as how they’re coached and the tradition that they have.”
The bruising back was helpless watching from the trainer’s table with ice on his left knee as Patuxent outscored Fort Hill, 21-0, in the second half.
Fort Hill rushed for 155 yards in the first half but was held to 62 after intermission.
“It hurts a lot,” Alkire said of the injury. “He’s been our bellcow for the better part of the season. He’s been a phenomenal player for us the last three years. He’s played a critical role since his sophomore year, first on defense and then this year on offense.
“Hopefully, it’s nothing too serious. He’s got a big career ahead of him.”
Fort Hill’s defense limited Patuxent to just 17 rushing yards on 13 carries in the first half; however, it couldn’t stop the big play after intermission.
Jones, who has offers from Maryland and Virginia Tech, finished with 132 yards and a score on 22 carries, and he hauled in six passes for 107 and another score.
His quarterback, Watson, completed 12 of 18 passes for 250 yards and three touchdowns to one interception.
“Just a lot of doubles,” said Fort Hill defensive lineman Kyler Miller of what Patuxent was having success with in the second half. “Just couldn’t get back there at the end, couldn’t finish it.”
Things went from bad to worse for Fort Hill after Dixon’s defensive score, as Fort Hill coughed the ball up again one play later, recovered by the Panthers’ Nathan Sands.
Fort Hill’s defense gave it a chance, forcing consecutive punts down 35-28 in the fourth quarter. Patuxent was held to just 1 for 9 on third downs.
Taking over on its own 10, Fort Hill used a 28-yard carry by Chase Lamb and a fourth-down conversion aided by a facemask penalty to drive to Patuxent’s 41-yard line.
Facing a fourth-and-10, Fort Hill’s pass fell incomplete with 4:04 to play.
Fort Hill nearly got one final crack at it with no timeouts, but Jones picked up 15 yards on fourth-and-2 to allow Watson to kneel it out.
The fourth down was originally slated to be fourth-and-7 before an untimely encroachment penalty made the try easier.
Fort Hill put Patuxent to sleep with its running game in the first half, and House and Jameson Powell-Morris pounced for two quick touchdowns to give the Sentinels a 28-14 halftime lead.
The workhorse Younger rushed for 108 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries before intermission, scoring on runs of 27 and 14 yards at the 8:17 and 2:26 marks of the first quarter, respectively.
Those bruising scores were broken up by two one-play Fort Hill drives.
The first came in response to a 40-yard pitch and catch to Jones from Watson that tied the game at 7 with 6:59 left in the first quarter.
A long return by Channing Logsdon set up a short field at the Patuxent 41, and one play later, House hit Powell-Morris for a 41-yard touchdown with 6:38 remaining in the first.
After Younger made it 21-7 Fort Hill with his second score of the first quarter, House connected with Powell-Morris again, this time from 47 yards out for a 28-7 Sentinel lead with 2:17 left in the half.
Patuxent got back within two scores with one second left when Watson lifted a pass over the fingertips of a Fort Hill cornerback for a 24-yard touchdown.
The Panthers won the opening toss and elected to receive, a decision that proved costly after Ahmad Saunders intercepted a third-down pass to set up a short field for Fort Hill’s first score.
Fort Hill’s touchdown drives spanned 48, 47, 41 and 37 yards, aided by its stout defense and a series of short Patuxent punts.
The Sentinels’ longest first-half series went for 65 yards on 13 plays, eating up 7:13 of clock, but Patuxent stopped a fourth-down run by Younger a yard short.
Neek Taylor converted two first downs on the series, including a third-and-long on a nifty reverse pitch to Neek Taylor that picked up 14 yards.
Taylor filled in with Younger injured in the second half, and he ended with 27 yards on four carries — third on Fort Hill behind Younger and Lamb’s 39 yards on six totes.
AJ Adams thwarted Patuxent’s third series single-handedly, sacking Watson twice and tackling another ball carrier.
Mason Bennett also sacked Watson and Levi House made an open-field tackle on Jones for a loss to force a Patuxent punt that set up Fort Hill’s final touchdown of the opening half.
Patuxent was on the receiving end of all the explosive plays in the second half, however, and Fort Hill’s dreams of a Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association record fifth consecutive state championship ended in heartbreak.
“We have a great group of guys, guys that have bled for the school, have put all their heart and all their emotion into their school,” Alkire said. “It’s unfortunate that we ended up falling short, but that’s life sometimes.
“There are going to be better days ahead for these guys because they’re great kids,” Alkire said, noting the team’s 3.98 GPA over the past nine weeks.
With both teams returning a host of standouts on both sides of the football, Saturday’s classic could be a championship fixture in coming years.
“They’ve won what, 11 (championships),” Crounse asked. “We want to be in that upper echelon of programs in the state.”