Fort Hill tops preseason Area Top 5; Mtn. Ridge 2, East Hardy 3
Aug. 26—A year after finishing a perfect 12-0 and capturing their eighth state championship, the Fort Hill Sentinels were the unanimous pick as the preseason No. 1 in the Area Top 5 by a panel of local sportswriters.
Mountain Ridge, which fell to the Sentinels, 51-31, in last year's Class 1A title game in Annapolis, was second in the poll with 27 votes, followed by East Hardy (14), Allegany (13) and Frankfort (10).
Keyser and Moorefield both received three votes.
The area sportswriter poll is voted on by Jeff Landes, Kyle Bennett, Jordan Kendall and Alex Rychwalski (Cumberland Times-News); Chapin Jewell (Mineral News-Tribune), Nick Carroll (Hampshire Review) and Trevor King (Garrett County Republican). The poll encompasses Allegany, Garrett, Mineral, Hampshire, Grant and Hardy counties.
Fort Hill enters 2022 in a far different position than it was in a season ago.
Mountain Ridge, fresh off its first-ever win over the Sentinels during the COVID-shortened spring, climbed into the No. 1 spot with an eye-popping 84-0 rout of Southern in Week 1, and the Miners stayed there for each of the first six weeks.
That changed when Fort Hill made a statement in one of the most-anticipated area football games in recent memory, cruising against then-unbeaten Mountain Ridge, 37-7, at Greenway Avenue Stadium.
The Sentinels were the top team in the poll the rest of the way.
"I would definitely say we used that as fuel," Fort Hill head coach Zack Alkire said of being snubbed in last year's poll. "I know that going into the season there were people who were predicting we'd go .500. The fact that Mountain Ridge was voted No. 1 was definitely something that the kids were aware of and we made sure the kids were aware of.
"They were a program on the rise and we'd lost to them when we played them, and they deserved to be No. 1 until we beat them. ... Last year's class was a group of kids that have always been slighted. The fact that it was happening again, we felt it could resonate with those guys."
The shoe is on the other foot in 2022. While Fort Hill lost Area Player of the Year Blake White and Defensive Player of the Year TJ Lee to graduation, the Sentinels bring back dominant lineman Carter Hess, the Lineman of the Year, and starting tailbacks Tavin Willis and Tanner Wertz among others.
However, expectations rose to an even greater level when former Bishop Walsh star Mikey Allen, who holds a Division I basketball offer from Maine, transferred to Fort Hill for the fall football season.
Fort Hill has also added Steven Spencer, a transfer from Oakdale, who displayed a quick burst at linebacker and in the backfield during the Queen City Quad last weekend.
"We tell them, 'You are the target this year. You are the team everyone will be circling on their calendar,'" Alkire said.
Mountain Ridge, which went 11-2 last year, lost the area's best quarterback in Offensive Player of the Year Bryce Snyder, who's now at Frostburg State, to graduation, but the Miners return six starters on both sides of the ball.
Mountain Ridge's offensive line, headed by UMass commit Peyton Miller, could be the best in the area, and 1,000-yard rusher Jaden Lee is back for his senior season. Uma Pua'auli — who scored seven rushing and seven receiving TDs last year — is the expected starter under center.
East Hardy was a surprise picking up the No. 3 spot over Allegany. The Cougars finished 2021 with a 10-2 record and fell in the Class A quarterfinals. The Campers, meanwhile, ended 8-3 and fell in the Class 1A West Region Finals.
Frankfort went 7-5 last year and ended the season in the Class AA quarterfinals.
Alex Rychwalski is a sports reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @arychwal.
