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Erie Prep (PA) at Fort Hill (MD) finalized for 9/26


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Erie Prep is the 3-time defending PA 4A state champions.

Fort Hill has won 5 of the last 6 MD 1A state championships.

 

Fort Hill has a great game day atmosphere. Might be worth a trip for anyone in the region, especially with it being a Thursday night game. I believe this is the first time a Maryland public school has ever scheduled an OOS team that finished in the Top 100 nationally. CalPreps says Erie Prep by 25 FWIW.

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3 minutes ago, eaglesinsider said:

Erie Prep is the 3-time defending PA 4A state champions.

Fort Hill has won 5 of the last 6 MD 1A state championships.

 

Fort Hill has a great game day atmosphere. Might be worth a trip for anyone in the region, especially with it being a Thursday night game. I believe this is the first time a Maryland public school has ever scheduled an OOS team that finished in the Top 100 nationally. CalPreps says Erie Prep by 25 FWIW.

Melbourne Central Catholic went up and had a great trip from what I heard. 

Mel CC lost in heartbreaking fashion. 46-44 or something like that. 

Fort Hill runs the veer or wing T if I remember correctly 

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5 minutes ago, Nolebull813 said:

Melbourne Central Catholic went up and had a great trip from what I heard. 

Mel CC lost in heartbreaking fashion. 46-44 or something like that. 

Fort Hill runs the veer or wing T if I remember correctly 

Yeah, I think it came down to a turnover on special teams or something like that that sealed the W for Fort Hill. I know FH was really appreciative for Melbourne Central Catholic coming up and did their best to take care of them. They had a massive crowd for MCC. The community really shows up in force for interesting games like that. Cumberland is the one place in Maryland you'll get an awesome Friday night lights experience. Their stadium is twice as large as the next biggest HS stadium in MD and the whole community really pulls together to support the 2 high schools in town (Fort Hill and Allegany). Fort Hill has been a Wing T team pretty much since the Wing T came to be. 

Cumberland is a blue collar factory town that was once the 2nd largest city in Maryland but the population has dropped from 40,000 in 1940 to under 20,000 now as more and more of the factories and mines have closed down. I have family from there but most left in the 50s or 60s. Great grandmother lived there until she passed at 102. We sold her 2 bed/2 bath house with a garage for $60,000 to give you some idea of property values in that part of the world. Culturally it is a world apart from the rest of Maryland. Much closer to West Virginia or Western PA. Kind of a mix of Appalachia and the Rust Belt.

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1 hour ago, eaglesinsider said:

Erie Prep is the 3-time defending PA 4A state champions.

Fort Hill has won 5 of the last 6 MD 1A state championships.

 

Fort Hill has a great game day atmosphere. Might be worth a trip for anyone in the region, especially with it being a Thursday night game. I believe this is the first time a Maryland public school has ever scheduled an OOS team that finished in the Top 100 nationally. CalPreps says Erie Prep by 25 FWIW.

Baltimore Poly played Brockton (Mass.) when it was ranked preseason No. 1 in USA Today in 1988. Brockton won its OOS games that year but was upset by Leominster midseason before winning out and finishing No. 17 in that poll. Brockton coincidentally split a pair of games with ECP a few years after.

That Fort Hill atmosphere sounds fun. Always love it when you can get that for any HS game.

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1 hour ago, eaglesinsider said:

Erie Prep is the 3-time defending PA 4A state champions.

Fort Hill has won 5 of the last 6 MD 1A state championships.

 

Fort Hill has a great game day atmosphere. Might be worth a trip for anyone in the region, especially with it being a Thursday night game. I believe this is the first time a Maryland public school has ever scheduled an OOS team that finished in the Top 100 nationally. CalPreps says Erie Prep by 25 FWIW.

EP heavy favorite, but I like this game, it’ll be a good experience for both teams. 

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Nice matchup. I think Fort Hill would be at the 3A/4A border in Pennsylvania. I went to the Fort Hill-MCC game a couple years ago, big crowd on a Saturday night and great game which Fort Hill won 44-42 on a field goal as time expired. 

I see a lot more OOS games than usual on DMV public school schedules this year. Nothing of major national interest, but teams that don't usually play out of the area. No idea if this is an indication of increased interest or if teams are just having a harder time filling schedules locally.

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1 hour ago, MA Fan said:

Nice matchup. I think Fort Hill would be at the 3A/4A border in Pennsylvania. I went to the Fort Hill-MCC game a couple years ago, big crowd on a Saturday night and great game which Fort Hill won 44-42 on a field goal as time expired. 

I see a lot more OOS games than usual on DMV public school schedules this year. Nothing of major national interest, but teams that don't usually play out of the area. No idea if this is an indication of increased interest or if teams are just having a harder time filling schedules locally.

The MPSSAA changed the playoff qualifications in the last off season.  Each classification is divided into four regions. Used to be that the top four in each region qualified for the playoffs, that has been expanded to the top eight in each region. Now a loss will not break a teams playoff chances so expect to see better matchups in the future such as FH-ECP.  What will be interesting will be to see if ECP has trouble adjusting to Fort Hill's wing-t offense.

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4 hours ago, Waggle Pass said:

The MPSSAA changed the playoff qualifications in the last off season.  Each classification is divided into four regions. Used to be that the top four in each region qualified for the playoffs, that has been expanded to the top eight in each region. Now a loss will not break a teams playoff chances so expect to see better matchups in the future such as FH-ECP.  What will be interesting will be to see if ECP has trouble adjusting to Fort Hill's wing-t offense.

I remember when almost every team ran the Wing-T (at least up here). Now it's all spread and everyone has a harder time defending the teams that never ditched it because they barely see it anymore.

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19 hours ago, Adam Kurkjian said:

I remember when almost every team ran the Wing-T (at least up here). Now it's all spread and everyone has a harder time defending the teams that never ditched it because they barely see it anymore.

When Fort Hill played Melbourne Central Catholic, MCC didn't seem to have any idea how to play the wing-t. I think FH punted maybe once if at all. Fort Hill will apparently be bigger along the lines (four of the starting OL return) than they have been in several years.

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On 7/26/2019 at 9:27 PM, eaglesinsider said:

Yeah, I think it came down to a turnover on special teams or something like that that sealed the W for Fort Hill. I know FH was really appreciative for Melbourne Central Catholic coming up and did their best to take care of them. They had a massive crowd for MCC. The community really shows up in force for interesting games like that. Cumberland is the one place in Maryland you'll get an awesome Friday night lights experience. Their stadium is twice as large as the next biggest HS stadium in MD and the whole community really pulls together to support the 2 high schools in town (Fort Hill and Allegany). Fort Hill has been a Wing T team pretty much since the Wing T came to be. 

Cumberland is a blue collar factory town that was once the 2nd largest city in Maryland but the population has dropped from 40,000 in 1940 to under 20,000 now as more and more of the factories and mines have closed down. I have family from there but most left in the 50s or 60s. Great grandmother lived there until she passed at 102. We sold her 2 bed/2 bath house with a garage for $60,000 to give you some idea of property values in that part of the world. Culturally it is a world apart from the rest of Maryland. Much closer to West Virginia or Western PA. Kind of a mix of Appalachia and the Rust Belt.

Allegany brought the wing t to Cumberland in 1977 with then coach Jim Refosco. Allegany went on to win state titles in three of the next six years. Fort Hill didn't go full boar into the wing t until 1988. They were a I or Veer offense prior.

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On 7/26/2019 at 10:49 PM, Adam Kurkjian said:

Baltimore Poly played Brockton (Mass.) when it was ranked preseason No. 1 in USA Today in 1988. Brockton won its OOS games that year but was upset by Leominster midseason before winning out and finishing No. 17 in that poll. Brockton coincidentally split a pair of games with ECP a few years after.

That Fort Hill atmosphere sounds fun. Always love it when you can get that for any HS game.

Poly wasn't a part of the MPSSAA at that time which is what I think eaglesinsider was getting at.

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DeMatha played Brockton twice in ‘90 and ‘91-both games at Brockton.   DM came close to winning the first game but lost.  The next year they won.  That DM team was featured in USA  Today with a sports section photo that showed 15 players in the DM library signing letters of intent.  A great DM team (that lost the week they returned from MA!).  Brockton was a storied team in the ‘80’s including the preseason #1 ranking.  Also a great town and atmosphere for high school football.

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  • 1 month later...

Went to this game tonight. Cathedral Prep won 48-14. Fort Hill simply couldn't stop their passing attack--Cathedral QB threw for five touchdowns in the first half and could have thrown five more in the second half if they had wanted. Cathedral Prep would be a smaller 2A school in Maryland (assuming you doubled their enrollment to account for the school being all-boys), which is a good reminder that it's a different world with private schools in your association. Fort Hill might put a running clock on all their remaining opponents until they are deep in the playoffs.

Not quite the game or atmosphere as when Melbourne Central Catholic played there a few years ago, but I knew it would be a fun night when a fan sitting near me--thankfully not next to me--started berating one of the Fort Hill players for dropping a pass during warmups. Needless to say his disposition did not become any sunnier during the game.

For those assembling their daisy chains:

Cathedral Prep beat Football North 53-34 (Football North plays a bunch of the big Ohio teams)

Cathedral Prep lost to St. Edward 21-14

Cathedral Prep lost to Cleveland Benedictine 45-24 (Benedictine plays Archbishop Hoban in a couple weeks)

Cathedral Prep might also end up playing Imhotep (LaSalle, DeMatha and Bergen Catholic opponent) in the state championship again.

Fort Hill plays Silver Oak, who lost 79-0 to Football North, if you want to add some flair to your daisy chain.

Fort Hill plays Hedgesville WV next week. Hedgesville plays Martinsburg who played HD Woodson and Eastern from DC who ware both chainable to the big WCAC teams, and Academy Park PA who may end up chainable to Archbishop Wood who plays SJP

So really this game may be the linchpin in settling all of this year's ranking arguments. Unless tomorrow night's Heritage (Leesburg, VA) vs. Jefferson (Shenandoah Junction, WV) game takes that honor. Jefferson played DeMatha twice in the 1970's and that totally counts.

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22 minutes ago, GardenStateBaller said:

Please educate me on Football North.

The only decent one of the Canadian programs. I think a few of their key players from last year transferred to the Scientology school in Florida but they can still put up some points. Win over Lorain last week was called early due to a fight, loss to Mentor two weeks ago was called early due to thunderstorms, those are some long trips from the Toronto area to not play a full game. Iggy, X, St. Ed's, and Elder remaining on the schedule so they may as well just join the OHSAA at this point,

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On 7/26/2019 at 6:06 PM, eaglesinsider said:

Erie Prep is the 3-time defending PA 4A state champions.

Fort Hill has won 5 of the last 6 MD 1A state championships.

 

Fort Hill has a great game day atmosphere. Might be worth a trip for anyone in the region, especially with it being a Thursday night game. I believe this is the first time a Maryland public school has ever scheduled an OOS team that finished in the Top 100 nationally. CalPreps says Erie Prep by 25 FWIW.

It’s Cathedral Prep in Erie, PA, not Erie Prep. And game is over, 48-14 CP. 

By the way, Erie, PA is just as downtrodden as Cumberland, MD., if not more. It’s a horrible city. 

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Not much to say really. Prep was much better which most everyone figured. Impressed by their QB. Even when Fort Hill had good coverage, FH started a junior and two sophomores in the secondary, the throw was just better. They defensed the wing t much better than Melbourne CC did. Though FH did have 340 yds total offense. ECP was bigger, physical, and well coached. Fort Hill will only get better from this.

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