CUMBERLAND — Braelyn Younger powered Fort Hill ahead, and the Big Red defense left Perryville in the dust.
Younger took 35 bruising carries for 265 yards and four touchdowns, but Perryville kept tabs, remaining within a point late in the first half and one score at halftime.
Fort Hill’s defense didn’t intercept a pass in the regular season. It intercepted two in as many series to open the second half, both resulting in pick-sixes by Noah House and Ahmad Saunders to remove all doubt.
No. 3 seed Fort Hill dominated the second-half scoreboard 35-6, pulling away from seventh-seeded Perryville in a 56-19 romp on Friday at Greenway Avenue Stadium to advance to the Class 1A state championship game.
“Great win,” Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire said. “Really great theater out here tonight. You had the snow globe in full effect. You had two great teams that were ready coming in here, trying to advance to the state championship game. Two great programs.
“It was a very physical game. Really happy with the way that our kids were able to turn it up. Really happy to be going back to Annapolis.”
Fort Hill will face defending Class 2A/1A state champion Patuxent (9-3), the classification’s No. 1 seed, next Saturday at noon with the Sentinels one win away from a state-record fifth consecutive championship.
Perryville (8-5) led Fort Hill (9-3) by two touchdowns at one point in the teams’ semifinal matchup in Cecil County last year, and the Panthers were feisty Friday.
It was a 21-13 game before House jumped a route and tipped a Joe Thomason pass to himself, rumbling 57 yards to the end zone to make it 28-13 with 11:01 left in the third quarter.
Then it was Saunders’ turn to garner a defensive touchdown, accelerating 50 yards on another errant delivery for a 35-13 edge at the 9:34 mark of the third.
“It was the spark that we needed to come out of half,” Alkire said. “Between the last drive (of the first half), getting that touchdown in, and then the quick turnaround on defense, it makes putting up points a lot easier when the defense gets to do it.”
Fort Hill forced four turnovers in the second half in all, with Younger adding an interception and Neek Taylor recovering a fumble.
The Sentinel secondary was burnt for a long touchdown in the first half, but it held Thomason to no completions on six attempts in the second half.
Taylor got on the scoreboard with a 22-yard jaunt off left tackle at the 4:01 mark of the third.
Fort Hill’s defense allowed just one scoring drive in the second half, aided by a fumble recovered by Perryville’s Mekhi Gibbs at the Sentinel 10-yard line. Zayd Fareed scored a play later from 10 yards out with 42 seconds on the clock before the fourth period.
Younger answered the touchdown with his longest rush. He received the handoff on a fullback trap, made one cut and was gone, 44 yards for a touchdown. Fort Hill led after the score, 49-19, with 10:27 to play.
Younger became the sixth Fort Hill player to score 30 touchdowns in a season and third to top 2,000 yards.
“I felt the need (to carry the offense),” said Younger, who felt the punishment of his work load, limping to his postgame interview. “My lead blocker, my main blocker, my guy really went down and I had to pick (it) up for him.”
Younger referenced the injury to Fort Hill back and linebacker Carson Bender, who left the game in the first half with a collarbone injury. Alkire said he’d be evaluated after the game to determine if it’s season-ending.
Fort Hill secured a running clock on a one-yard quarterback keeper by House with 2:20 to play.
House completed 4 of 5 passes for 85 yards.
Fort Hill out-gained Perryville, 416-226, and had an 18-9 edge in first downs. The Sentinels had 47 carries for 331 yards and won the time of possession battle, 29:02-18:58.
Perryville pulled to within a point late in the first half, but Fort Hill’s two-minute offense gave it a 21-13 lead at intermission.
Younger took a pass in the flat and rumbled down to the two-yard line with three seconds left. Fort Hill, despite having no timeouts, decided to go for six points instead of three, and Younger powered into the end zone with no time on the clock.
Fort Hill drew inspiration from a goal-line stop against Perryville in 2024. The Sentinels wanted to make a statement.
“That decision was made last year in the semifinal game when we weren’t able to get in from the one-yard line four times in a row,” Alkire said. “That was one of our focuses all week long, was we’re going to be a more physical football team, we’re going to finish off drives.
“That was a prove-it moment, and we were able to prove it.”
That was the third of three Younger touchdowns in the first half.
The senior capped a 13-play, 80-yard opening drive with a 12-yard run with 5:18 left in the first quarter.
He punctuated a five-play, 72-yard series on a 17-yard scamper in which he hurdled a Perryville tackler diving at his legs for a 14-3 Sentinel lead with 11 minutes left in the half.
Fort Hill punter Jacob Bone had the most consequential play of the half.
With the Sentinels leading 14-10, the long snapper launched the ball over Bone’s head. Bone fielded the ball in the Fort Hill end zone and got the punt off under considerable pressure, earning a favorable roll to midfield.
“Luckily there was someone in the back of the end zone that was standing there and they were screaming at me, ‘you have time, you have time, you have time,’” Bone said. “So I didn’t have to check my shoulder to see if they were there.”
Bone hadn’t punted in seven weeks, since a matchup with North Hagerstown on Oct. 17, but he was ready for his moment.
The senior also pinned Perryville inside its own five-yard line during the second half.
“You just have to be ready for when it does get called and just do what what I do,” Bone said. “It just starts with practice and doing the same things every day.”
Perryville kicker James Abrams kicked field goals of 34 and 23 yards, sandwiching a 70-yard touchdown reception by Jayden Byard.
Byard made the grab despite Fort Hill pass interference, breaking free for a long score on 3rd-and-22. The pass was thrown by Thomason.
But Byard didn’t catch the ball in the second half, and Fort Hill pulled away on the strength of its defense.
Fort Hill now draws the newly reclassified Patuxent Panthers, which defeated Boonsboro, 35-27, on Friday.
“It’s what our goal is every season, to compete for state championship,” Alkire said. “The fact that we get to go down to Annapolis again to compete for a state championship, against a program that was also state champion last year, it’s a really big deal.”