On a night that was otherwise dry, there sure was a lot of Raen at Greenway Avenue Stadium for Fort Hill’s 1A Region Semifinal matchup with Northern Garrett. The Sentinels (9-1) defeated Northern (6-5) to advance in the Maryland State Playoffs with a 33-6 victory.
The Sentinels ground attack totaled 314 yards, led by junior Raen Smith who finished the matchup with 18 carries for 159 yards and scored 3 times. Smith, who rushed for over 1,000 yards and 23 scores as a sophomore last season, is a 6’1″ 235-pound fullback who possesses good quickness and runs with power. On the field his quick feet, stiff-arm use, and ability to lower-his-should makes him the key to the Sentinels Wing-T, run-first offense. He was also named our MSA Player of The Game presented by Rehab 2 Perform.
Brayden Brown and Brayden Poling also scored touchdowns for Fort Hill – Brown on a 43 yard run and Poling on a 47 yard catch.
It was the highly touted-junior tailback Brown (6’2″ 182-pounds) who got the scoring started, giving Fort Hill an early 7-0 lead with his run a few plays after defensive lineman Brayden Conley recovered a fumble on the Huskies second play from scrimmage. The touchdown was Brown’s team leading 19th on the season, he also leads the team in rushing yards, receptions, receiving yards, and return yards.
Then, it would be Smith who crossed the goal-line on the Sentinels next two scores – increasing the lead to 21-0. Before the half, running a spread-style offensive set it was junior-QB Nathaniel Graves finding sophomore Brayden Poling for his 10th touchdown pass of the season. Poling hauled in the 47 yard score, his 3rd receiving on the season, to extend the lead to 27-0. Fort Hill missed the extra-point attempt and heading into the locker room at halftime with the comfortable lead.
The teams would combine for just 12 total point in a somewhat eventless second half. Raen Smith added his third touchdown midway through the third-quarter to extend the lead to 33-0, followed by another failed PAT. Fort Hill would turn to a lot of their reserve players for much of the second half, with Northern’s score coming as time was nearly expired.
While the Fort Hill offense rolled as normal, it may have been the play of its defense that was most impressive. They allowed the Huskies just 159 total yards for the entire game, most of which came with under a minute to play on a long TD run by Aaron Rodeheaver. In their last four games, including this 159 yard performance the Sentinels have held their opponents to 201, 192, and 188 of total offense – and over that span have allowed just 27 points.
For the Sentinels, the win is their 13th straight in the month of November (a stretch dating back to the 2012 season) and sets up a rematch with the cross-town rival Allegany (9-2), who defeated Boonsboro (10-1) in a thrilling 6-3 overtime game in Washington County.
Fort Hill and Allegany will meet next Friday night, it’ll be the Sentinels 10th straight appearance in the in the 1A West Region Championship and first playoff game against the Campers since 2012. This will be the second meeting in three weeks for the two schools.
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