HOW ABOUT THAT! FORT HILL MARYLAND STATE CHAMPS
Cumberland Sunday Times - November 23, 1975


Sentinels Romp 34-8


By Gene Goodrich - Sunday Times Staff Writer
OXON HILL - "If we were to go to war tomorrow, these are the young men I'd want to fight for me."

There is no one probably in Cumberland - the South End of it ast least - who does not feel today as Charlie Lattimer did here yesterday in the middle of Friendly High School football field.

Only minutes before Fort Hills' football team, for the past 17 years the pride and passion of head coach Lattimer, had staked its claim as perhaps the best schoolboy team in Maryland by literally thrashing Frederick Douglass 34-8 for the Class "A" state grid championship.

Maryland Playoffs

CLASS A
Fort Hill 34, Frederick Douglass 8

CLASS AA
Arundel 13, Parkside 7

CLASS B
Paint Branch 28, Howard 3

CLASS C
Joppatowne 30, Smithsburg 26

Talking amid a virtual ocean of red-and-white dressing, bunting, streamers and uniforms borne by the well over 3,000 "Big Red" fans on hand, Lattimer heaped unabashed praise on his charges.

"You can't say enough for a bunch of young men who are able to go through an entire season unbeaten," he declared.

"But 12 games? The ability of these young men to go through 12 games undefeated, and topping it all with a state championship, is without a doubt the crowning achievement of my coaching career."

Only a step away from Lattimer, whose words were still barely audible above the pandemonium of the Sentinel band, cheering and loud congratulations from well-wishers swarming the field, was a metropolitan sportswriter still awestruck by the enthusiasm and pageantry of the Fort Hill fans.

"I don't believe it," he told Lattimer. "Douglass High is only 20 minutes away from here, and you people bring 3,000 fans and more pageantry than most colleges. How do you do it?"

"Folks up our way love a good football team," Lattimer replied.

The Yardstick
Fort Hill
Douglass
11
First Downs Rushing
7
2
First Downs Passing
1
0
First Downs Penalty
0
13
Total First Downs
8
2
Lost On Downs
2
10
Passes Attempted
20
3
Passes Completed
3
2
Passes Intercepted By
1
65
Yards On Passes
36
5-13.2
Punting Average
4-27.5
1-0
Fumbles-Lost
3-2
9-86
Penalties
3-25
325
Yards Gained Rushing
167
16
Yards Lost Rushing
16
390
Total Offense
187
47
Total Rushes
21

All the while the normally gruff Sentinel mentor heaped uncharacteristic "sugary" plaudits on his players. Lattimer never once referred to the coaching points that probably won for the Red Raiders one of two state championships for Cumberland area fans yesterday.

For it was on an otherwise unnoticed flaw of the Douglass game that probably proved the Eagles' undoing against the Sentinels yesterday, and it was the ever-observant eyes of Lattimer which pulled it out of a game film last week. And it paid off in dividends yesterday when put to use.

When watching the replay of the game today on television, watch that first quarter fake punt by Douglass again, which appeared for all the world to be a bold gamble at fourth-and-eight near the Eagle 25-yard line.

There wasn't a soul in the Friendly stadium that didn't think Eagle coach Rex Holliday hadn't lost his mind when ordering the fake punt so close to the Fort Hill goal...and so early in the game.

"The fact is I didn't order a fake kick," said Holliday. "Ask Coach Lattimer about it."

Lattimer explains that big coaching point.

"We noticed that the Douglass center lifted the ball off the ground then moved it forward before snapping it back to the punter," he explained.

That's a no-no against the "Eagle-eyed" veteran coach of 71 football wars.

"So we practiced against their punt formation all week long, and it worked," he stated.

What the Sentinels practiced was this; when the Eagle punter lifted the ball, nose guard Randy Hillegas (number 40 on your screen) was to swing at the ball, hoping to cause a fumble.

The 5-9, senior Hillegas didn't cause a fumble, but what happened was just as good.

After Hillegas swatted the ball, it zipped back not to the punter, but to a stunned short man in the formation, Mark Venable, who tried to run the best of the sudden situation, only to be felled at the 22-yardline by the alert Sentinel defense.

It took only two plays for the Big Red Machine to shock the still-stunned Eagles, Chuck Spangler humiliating the formerly proud Douglass defense with a 19-yard scoring quarterback sneak.

Individual Story

RUSHING
FORT HILL

 
Att
Yds
TD
Avg.
Steve Trimble
26
152
3
5.8
Lyle Peck
7
111
1
15.9
Mike McCullough
5
31
0
6.1
Chuck Spangler
7
25
1
3.6
Todd Martin
2
6
0
3.0
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
 
Att
Yds
TD
Avg.
Mark Foster
11
72
0
6.5
Phil Wedge
11
17
0
1.5
Bart Pfautz
2
5
0
2.5
Dave Wingate
1
3
0
3.0
Mike Wilson
2
3
0
1.5
Joe Niosi
1
-8
0
--

PASSING
FORT HILL

Att. Comp. Int.
Yds.
TD
Chuck Spangler  
3-9-1
65
0
Steve Trimble  
1-0-0
0
0
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Mike Wilson  
3-20-2
36
0

RECEIVING
FORT HILL

 
Rec
Yds
TD
Avg.
Mike Hast
3
65
0
21.3
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Kevin Williams
2
24
0
12.0
Joe Niosi
1
12
0
12.0

INTERCEPTIONS
FORT HILL

   
No.
Yds
TD
Randy Bierman  
2
0
0
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Mark Stalnaker  
1
8
0

Alan Wilson booted the first of his four PATs on the day to launch Fort Hill to a 7-0 lead with only 2:38 gone in the first quarter.

"We tried all week not to psyche our kids out against Fort Hill," said coach Holliday afterwards. "But after that play, we lost a lot of confidence which us coaches weren't able to rebuild until the beginning of the second half."

The lightning start by the Sentinels sent the Eagles into a shock, from which they didn't awaken until Fort Hill was up 28-0.

Taking over minutes later at midfield, the precisioned unbeaten machine of Fort Hill struck again, when a Chuck Spangler to Mike Hast middle screen pass - which last week broke Northwood's second-half momentum in the classic semifinal game - set up a second touchdown by Fort Hill. The play, a surprise by coming on first down, ate up 37 yards to the Eagle 14. And it took all-state candidate Steve Trimble only three carries to make it 14-0.

The 5-11 senior Trimble who has virtually smashed every scoring and rushing record in the area this season, scored his 30th TD of the season on an eight-yard burst behind a devastating block by Lyle Peck with just a minute to go in the first period.

And on his very next carry, he was rushing 43 yards in the other direction for the Sentinel's third score with just seconds gone in the second quarter. That run, coming after the Fort Hill defense stopped Douglass stone cold on their third straight offensive series, lifted the Big Red to what seemed a runaway 21-0 lead.

"We knew we had to stop Trimble," said Holliday, "but we knew we couldn't do it by concentrating primarily on him. Because we knew, too, that Peck was a 9.8 man in the 100-yard dash, and he could burn us if we didn't watch our step."

As it happened, however, the "Dyno-mite" running back tandem overcame a Douglass defense that had held its opponents to less than a touchdown a game.

Trimble couldn't be stopped...again. For the 11th time in 12 games this year, he topped the 100-yard mark, yesterday doing the trick with 152 yards in 26 carries.

"He proved to us that he is exactly what we thought he was," said Holliday of the 175-pound Trimble. "He's the best running back we've seen this year, and Fort Hill is the best team in Maryland in any class."

Trimble's 26 carries ends his senior year with 300 totes, on which he ripped off a total of 1,677 yards. With another touchdown in the fourth quarter - Fort Hill's final of the day on a four-yard run - his 18 points of yesterday gave him exactly 200 on the season, which is better by 62 points than Lefty Bruce's 25-year record of 138.

Peck, too, made a shambles of the Eagles' vaunted defense.

Douglass finally appeared to have stopped the Fort Hill lightning beginning when Mike Kovac sent his 42-yard punt booming to the Fort Hill eight-yardline, putting the Sentinels in the hole despite their 21-0 second quarter lead.

In an effort to give quarterback Spangler more operating room, Lattimer ordered a patented Peck dive up the middle, hoping to set up a second-and-short situation. What happened this time was even better.

The 6-4, 205 pound bulldozer, who packs speed to spare, jolted into the line and encountered only one defender there, whom he bowled over while cutting right to daylight.

Turning on his "9.8 speed", Peck outran three defenders to the goalline, passing the entire Eagle bench enroute to the back-breaking 92-yard run.

That gallop enabled him to top 100 yards for the second time this season, and the first since South Hagerstown, in the second game of the year.

Despite trailing 28-0, Douglass, in only its third year of football and smallest Class "A" school in the state (Fort Hill is the second smallest with nine more students), came roaring back to open the second half.

After stopping the Sentinels on their first series to open the second half, Eagles Mark McLean and Eddy Bunting broke through to block Hast's punt from his own 46. Six-foot, 185-pound tackle Tommy Glynn scooped up the loose ball at the 36 and rambled untouched to the end zone to ignite the first cheer from the Eagles fans since the opening kickoff. Mark Foster ran the PAT which closed the gap to 28-8.

If that wasn't enough to create second doubts about a runaway from the Sentinels, then the Eagles' were bound to repeat the scene. Kevin Kirby, a self-proclaimed "Wildman" as his helmet attested, broke through the Sentinel specialty wall only minutes later to block a Hast punt for the second straight time.

Kirby, who only yesterday morning was named to the Washington Star's All-Suburban Maryland squad, recovered his block himself at the 15-yardline and the Eagles appeared poised to further close the gap.

But, two leaping tips by Trimble of Mike Wilson-to-Kevin Williams passes in the end zone saved the day for Fort Hill, as the Eagle thrust, and last threat of the game, died at the five-yard line.

 

Fort Hill 14 14 0 6 --34
Douglass 0 0 8 0 --8
F - Chuck Spangler, 19 run. (Alan Wilson kick.)
F - Steve Trimble, 8 run (Wilson kick.)
F - Trimble, 43 run (Wilson kick.)
F - Lyle Peck, 92 run (Wilson kick.)
D - Tom Glynn, 36 run of blocked punt (Mark Foster run.)
F - Trimble, 4 run (Pass fails.)