CUMBERLAND — For the 105th time — 89th on Homecoming/Turkey Day — Fort Hill and Allegany will take the field at Greenway Avenue Stadium on Saturday.
The historic rivalry between Cumberland’s gridiron rivals renews today at 12:30 p.m., and the game isn’t lacking for storylines. The winner is projected to finish No. 1 in the Class 1A West Region standings.
Four-time defending state champion No. 2 Fort Hill (5-3) has won 16 consecutive Homecoming games and 21 over No. 3 Allegany (4-4) overall.
Still, Fort Hill knows it can’t take Allegany lightly.
“I’m really excited to be able to participate in another Homecoming game,” said Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire, who is 4-0 in the game. “Allegany, much like us, is on a bit of a hot streak, and it should be a good matchup.”
Fort Hill leads the Homecoming series, 56-29-3, and the all-time head-to-head, 68-32-4.
Fort Hill enters as the No. 1 seed in the Class 1A West Region playoffs with 51 points. Allegany, second with 41 points, nets 11 with a win Saturday — six win points and five bonus — and could overtake the Sentinels depending on how the teams’ other opponents fare this week.
Fort Hill also needs to win to secure a possible home game in the state quarterfinals if it emerges from the region. The Sentinels entered the week tied with SEED School for fourth in Class 1A in points.
Fort Hill comes in riding a three-game winning streak, pounding Smithsburg, 56-6, North Hagerstown, 48-6, and Mountain Ridge 62-0. The Sentinels’ three losses — Dunbar, Hollidaysburg and Bridgeport — came into this week a combined 25-1.
“The team made the decision that they were going to hit the reset button after Bridgeport and came in with a different attitude in practice every day,” Alkire said. “That’s kind of been the biggest change. It’s been an everyday effort rather than just trying to show up on Friday nights and get the job done.”
Allegany started 1-4 against a similarly difficult slate but has rattled off three in a row, beginning with a romp of Southern, 42-0, and followed by a pair of gut-check triumphs over Keyser, 26-21, and Northern, 18-13.
The Campers’ defense has settled in allowing just 11.3 points over the past three games, but it’s meeting an offense that’s averaged 55.3 points over the same span.
“Good football team,” Allegany head coach Bryan Hansel said of the Sentinels. “They’ve got athletes in a lot of positions. … They’ve played a tough schedule, so I don’t think the record really indicates how good of a football team they are. We’re going to have to try and put together a full game and pretty much play a perfect game to give ourselves a chance to win.”
It will be a difficult challenge for Allegany, which is down its second-leading rusher Amanni Blowe to a collarbone injury suffered early in the game against Northern last week.
The Campers will miss Blowe’s 595 yards and seven touchdowns on offense, but they’ll likely miss his impact on the defensive line as much, if not more. Blowe has 58 tackles (eight for loss), two sacks, a forced fumble and a recovery.
“It’s a tough blow,” Hansel said. “It’s a tough loss for us. Defensively it’s a tougher loss because in the middle of that defense, he was able to get to a lot of plays that other people couldn’t. … He’s basically a linebacker playing defensive line.
“He’s been one of the best captains for us since a Karson Robinette, just in his energy and his attitude.”
Both sides feature talented feature backs.
Fort Hill senior Braelyn Younger is the area’s leading rusher at 116 carries for 1,154 yards and 14 touchdowns, adding six receptions for 206 yards and two scores — the Sentinels’ No. 2 receiver behind Jameson Powell-Morris (301 yards, four touchdowns).
Younger is running behind an offensive line that returned five contributors from last year, which should give the Sentinels an edge in the trenches.
Allegany sophomore Khiante Bible took over the top spot in Allegany’s backfield statistically with 143 yards and two touchdowns on 16 totes against Northern last week.
Bible has 590 yards over the past five weeks, an average of 118 per game, to push his season total to 656 yards and six touchdowns. He has seven receptions for 179 yards and a score in the passing game and 1,092 all-purpose yards.
Freshman Maddox Hensel (301 yards, three touchdowns) will likely fill the hole left by Blowe on offense, with Bible as the fullback. He had nine carries for 75 yards last week.
“They have some big-time playmakers,” Alkire said. “The receiver catches the ball very well and is able to make plays. He’s made a number of plays this year. They got a number of backs that can hurt you, so we’re going to have to be able to step up and fill gaps.”
The receiver Alkire referenced is Sebastian Stewart, who’s made 21 receptions for 450 yards and seven touchdowns after switching from quarterback to his more natural split end position this year.
With the exception of All-Area Northern defensive back Landon Yoder, who held Stewart without a catch last week, Stewart has faced little resistance. He’s been especially dynamic on slants on third-and-long.
Stewart is a key cog in an improved Allegany passing attack — one that, along with Fort Hill’s more than 700 aerial yards, combines to form what could be the most pass-happy Homecoming on record.
Allegany’s sophomore quarterback Dylan Blank has completed 40 of 80 passes for 827 yards, 10 touchdowns and six interceptions.
Fort Hill senior Noah House is 34 of 51 through the air for 762 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception.
Allegany’s Fred Kreiger still holds the Homecoming/Turkey Day passing record with the 207 yards he threw for in 1971, an 18-14 Campers victory in the fabled Snow Game.
As exciting as the big play is, Allegany is looking to take care of the little things first. The Campers struggled to close games with late turnovers against Keyser and Northern and have started slow in other contests.
Allegany has a slimmer margin for error against a team of Fort Hill’s caliber.
“Even in wins, we somehow find a way to make them more exciting,” Hansel said. “I think it’s clear everyone knows we can’t have any of those things in any form. If we want to give ourselves a chance to win, we can’t give free turnovers, we can’t have penalties kill drives, and we can’t give up special teams touchdowns.”
Fort Hill’s defense boasts two of the area’s top four tacklers in Levi House (100.5) and Carson Bender (85). Bible leads the Campers with 88 stops, DJ Riley has an area-best four interceptions, and Rylen Ellsworth tops all locals with four blocked kicks.
Through eight weeks, Fort Hill has yet to intercept a pass.
Asked if Allegany’s struggles against Fort Hill in recent memory has any impact on the game, Hansel pushed back.
“I’ve never heard (the streak) discussed,” Hansel said. “It’s just another game for them to go compete in. People, parents, may mention it, but our kids haven’t said a word about it.”
Whether his players understand the history or not, an Allegany win Saturday would be an all-time upset.