No. 1 Fort Hill routs Briar Woods, 28-0; line play, Daniels shine for Sentinels

Sep. 30—ASHBURN, Va. — Perfection is unattainable, but Fort Hill came close on Friday night in Northern Virginia.

The Sentinels invaded Briar Woods, a 4A opponent by Maryland's playoff system, and spoiled the Falcons' Homecoming by doing the little things.

Fort Hill didn't turn the ball over and it committed just 20 penalty yards — allowing the Sentinels to sustain long drives to the tune of a 30:03-17:57 edge in time of possession.

The seemingly un-tackleable Jabril Daniels finished those drives with three touchdowns, and Fort Hill's offensive and defensive lines looked like men among boys.

It wasn't a perfect performance, Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire would contest, but it was good enough to rout previously unbeaten Briar Woods, 28-0, on Friday night.

"It was our most complete game to date," Alkire said. "Briar Woods is probably our best opponent so far, but our guys showed up tonight. When we needed them to come out and play a great game, they did."

Fort Hill, No. 1 in the area poll, improved to 5-0 heading into its matchup with No. 2 Mountain Ridge (5-0) next Friday night at Greenway Avenue Stadium.

Briar Woods, ranked No. 20 in the Washington Post Top 20, came into Friday off its bye week, giving it two weeks to prepare for Fort Hill and its Wing-T offense.

As Briar Woods (4-1) would soon find out, seeing Fort Hill on tape and in person are two different things entirely.

The Sentinels jumped out to a 21-0 lead at halftime thanks to a trio of rushing touchdowns by Daniels — who finished with 184 yards on 27 carries — and they put the game to rest with a punishing drive to begin the second half.

Briar Woods received the opening kickoff of the second half, and Steven Spencer gave Fort Hill the ball back with an interception at the Sentinels' 16-yard line.

Sixteen plays, 84 yards and 10 minutes and 15 seconds later, and Fort Hill pushed its margin to 28-0 with a one-yard touchdown run by Nick Willison with 11:06 to play in the fourth quarter.

Briar Woods faced the Fort Hill first-team defense just once more, a drive Younger ended with an interception.

While Briar Woods was able to move the football at times, it couldn't finish drives. When it needed to get Fort Hill off the field, it couldn't do that either.

The mismatch on the line, which left Briar Woods to triple-team 2022 Defensive Player of the Year Carter Hess throughout the second half, was evident.

"We're still a young team, and we really weren't ready for the intensity that they brought," Briar Woods head coach Mike Burnett said. "They played hard and didn't make any mistakes. That's a pretty good recipe for winning.

"This is only my third year here, and getting up a weight program takes time. There's a program (at Fort Hill) where obviously they've spent years in the weight room."

Briar Woods' four first-half series ended with two three-and-outs and two turnovers on downs.

Falcons quarterback Brady Carmical (6-foot-2, 200 pounds) has attracted Division 1 buzz entering his junior season and is surrounded by weapons, so Fort Hill blitzed aggressively to cut down on his time to throw.

Sacks by Hess and Logan Vanmeter led to punts on two Briar Woods first-half series.

Carmical completed just 12 of 30 passes for 92 yards and two interceptions, and his offense produced nine first downs and 163 yards (103 against Fort Hill's first-team defense).

"They have a lot of kids that can catch the ball, and when the quarterback has time to throw, he throws a really great ball," Alkire said. "The plan was to get pressure on him and get hands on receivers."

Briar Woods tried to establish the run game early with little success. The Falcons had just eight carries for 10 yards before halftime, all but abandoning the running game after halftime until Carmical broke off two long runs totaling 59 yards against the Sentinels' second team.

Fort Hill's penetration got its offense the ball back on Briar Woods' third drive after Hess and company stuffed Trey Dudley for a loss on 4th-and-three.

Dudley, who came in averaging more than 100 yards per game, was held to only 12 on five carries.

"One of the goals tonight was to be physical with them," Alkire said. "We felt like we had the advantage up front on both sides of the ball."

Fort Hill rushed for 232 yards on 49 carries. Deshaun Brown completed both of his passes for 23 yards. The Sentinels ended with 19 first downs, and Cooper Silber made all four of his PATs.

While Briar Woods had two weeks to prepare for the Wing-T, it had little success stopping Fort Hill.

"It's hard when you don't see something very often," said Burnett, who coached Broad Run to two Virginia state championships in 2008-09.

"The speed of it is a big difference. We can have our scout team run it, but we don't run it with the same efficiency and the same speed. Everything just hits a little quicker. I think we had a good game plan. We just missed some tackles to be honest."

Missed tackling resulted in Daniels first two touchdown runs.

Briar Woods stopped Fort Hill on fourth down on the Sentinels' first drive of the night, and that was the last time the Falcons would stop Big Red before the half.

Fort Hill drove 80 yards on 12 plays on its second series, which ate up 6:53. Daniels capped the drive with a 17-yard rushing touchdown, breaking multiple arm tackles to make it 7-0 with 11:10 left in the second quarter.

Daniels mirrored that carry with a similar 18-yard score with 7:16 left in the half, and he cruised 24 yards to the end zone with 5:37 on the clock to put Fort Hill ahead by three scores.

The junior had 14 carries for 119 yards at the half.

"The running backs ran physical, especially Jabril," Alkire said. "He ran more punishing than he has all year. If he can do that (going forward), watch out."

Carson Bender was the Sentinels' second-leading rusher with 18 yards on five carries. Tristan Ross, in his first game back from injury, rushed for 16 yards on five touches, and Younger gained 13 on two rushes. Daniels also caught a pass for 19 yards.

Fort Hill now turns to Mountain Ridge, an opponents it's played four times over the last two years and twice in two Class 1A state championship victories.

The Miners ended the Sentinels' 18-game winning streak with a 30-8 upset in Frostburg last regular season.

"It's a game that we look forward to," Alkire said. "It's one of those games you circle on the schedule."

Alex Rychwalski is a sports reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @arychwal.