MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports
It doesn’t seem possible that it’s been seven years since Dunbar and Fort Hill have played each other in football. That’s a seven-year itch, though, that will be scratched on Friday, 5 p.m., when the two meet at Morgan State University.
It will be the first of two meetings in the home-and-home agreement, with the Poets scheduled to come to Cumberland next year to play the Sentinels at Greenway Avenue Stadium.
It will be the seventh time Fort Hill and Dunbar will meet, with the Poets holding a 5-1 series advantage, but it will be the first time the two Maryland high school powers will meet in the regular season.
Dunbar (1-0), currently ranked No. 11 in the Maryland Media Poll and 13-time Maryland state champion, is defending state champ in Maryland 2A/1A, while Fort Hill (1-0), ranked No. 14 in the state poll and 10-time state champion, is defending champ in Class 1A.
Dunbar has played Cumberland’s Allegany in a regular-season game, falling to the Campers 49-42 to open the 2017 season at Greenway; and, as fate would have it, the Poets concluded the 2017 season with a 30-26 win over Fort Hill in the Maryland 1A state title game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.
Prior to that, the Poets beat Fort Hill, 20-14, in the 2010 1A semifinals at Baltimore Poly’s Lumsden-Scott Stadium on a quarterback sneak by 5-foot-6, 140-pound quarterback Kevin Estep with 0:03 left in the game.
The play came on fourth-and-goal from the Fort Hill one with time running out after it appeared the Sentinels were about to mount yet another defensive stand inside its five-yard line that day, but Estep was ruled in by the near line judge, who seemed to be the only person who saw Estep even had the ball.
I know, because I was covering the game from the sideline and was standing on the goal line, and initially thought the fullback had the ball.
Two years before that, the teams met in the 2008 1A final at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore and the Poets won that in the final seconds as well, 20-19, scoring on a touchdown pass to the tight end on a flukey broken play that began with a bad snap on fourth down, before the great Tavon Austin just got into the end zone with the game-winning two-point conversion with 0:02 remaining.
It remains one of the most thrilling football games – on any level – that I have ever seen, yet it also remains the most difficult loss I’ve ever seen a team take.
Fort Hill had Dunbar on the ropes and was seconds away from winning what would have been the school’s third state title, but the worst thing that could have happened to the Sentinels happened – a broken play, and their disciplined stay-at-home defensive performance went out the window in mere seconds, because no team could defend the speed of that Dunbar team on a broken play.
Just an amazing game and an amazing performance by both teams.
In 2006, Austin’s sophomore year, the Poets beat the Sentinels, 38-23 at M&T in the 1A championship game. Fort Hill had a terrific team that season, as did Allegany when the Campers fell to the Poets in the title game one season later.
The Tavon Austin era at Dunbar, while painful for nearly every team that played the Poets over a three-year span, was a sight to behold. And clearly, he didn’t stop there, as he remains one of the all-time favorites and greats at West Virginia University and just weeks ago retired to close his distinguished NFL career.
While the Poets hold the edge over Fort Hill in wins, all but one of the games they’ve played have been exceptionally well-played and exciting games, beginning with their first meeting when Dunbar, led by future Florida State and NFL great Tommy Polley, topped the Sentinels, 30-15, in the 1994 2A state final at Hagerstown’s School Stadium.
Behind fullback Josh Page, though, Fort Hill won the next meeting, 22-6, in the 1997 2A final at the University of Maryland, marking the Sentinels’ only win in the series, and a huge one at that, as it clinched Fort Hill’s second state title and the first in 22 years, capping off one of the great seasons by one of the greatest teams in school history.
Not many games in the Baltimore area, or the state, will carry the buzz or the prestige of the Fort Hill-Dunbar game, something not lost on the NFL Baltimore Ravens as they will feature Friday’s contest as part of the Ravens RISE High School Football Showdown.
Ravens players will visit each team pregame and participate in the coin toss, while the Ravens cheerleaders, the mascot Poe and the marching band will also attend.
Both teams will be introduced through a smoke curtain and pyrotechnics with each school receiving a $2,500 donation from the Ravens and Dunkin.
The game will be streamed live on the Ravens’ YouTube channel and scores, highlights and a photo gallery will be posted on the Ravens website.
Fort HIll and Dunbar have had a great relationship for 30 years, as exhibited in 2014 when Dunbar accepted Fort Hill’s invitation to come to Cumberland to participate in the preseason Queen City Quad.
Both schools have a long history of love and respect for the game of football, which has been evident in every one of the games they’ve played against each other.
Congratulations to both schools for agreeing to this home-and-home series that features two of the most storied football programs in Maryland scholastic history.
Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @MikeBurkeMDT