CUMBERLAND — No. 1 Fort Hill and No. 5 Lighthouse Christian played a tight, defensive battle in the schools’ first-ever meeting.
But all it took was a slight defensive lapse from the Seahawks to put the Sentinels on top.
Jaiden Dillon scored a goal late in the first half off a throw-in to send Fort Hill to a 1-0 victory over Lighthouse on Saturday afternoon at Greenway Avenue Stadium.
Saturday marked the end of the regular season for both teams.
Fort Hill claimed its 12th consecutive win to improve to 13-1. Lighthouse dropped its second straight contest for a 21-3-1 record.
“We knew we were gonna be in for a fight,” Fort Hill coach Zach Steckman said. “It was a good battle. Lighthouse’s got a great team. They had a great game plan to kind of slow us down a little bit, and we broke through that one time.”
It took both teams a bit to find their footing, as neither squad recorded a shot on goal during the opening 10 minutes.
The first scoring chance for either side came on a Fort Hill corner kick around the 26:15 mark. John Reinhardt tried to head the kick into the net, but it hit the post for a Seahawks goal kick.
After that, both teams took cracks at the net, but goalies Bobby Brauer of Fort Hill and Peyton Poland of Lighthouse did everything they could to keep it a scoreless contest.
The Sentinels were awarded a throw-in on the Seahawks’ defensive third. Hunter Nyland heaved it towards the box where Hunter Raines fired the initial shot.
Raines’ attempt then ricocheted off Dillon’s head and into the net for the game’s only goal at the 4:14 mark.
“That goal in the moment was huge for us,” Steckman said. “Jaiden’s a spark plug kind of guy. He works his tail off for us and gives 100% effort all the time.
“It seems that every time we get him in there, something happens, whether he’s scoring a goal or making a hustle play, defensive play, whatever.”
The physicality continued into the second half as Fort Hill was assessed two yellow cards during the period.
The Seahawks attempted three free kicks during the second half, but couldn’t place them into the net.
Lighthouse’s best one came off the foot of Elijah Ziler with about 9:15 left to play, but Brauer punched it out.
The Seahawks’ other two free kicks sailed out of bounds.
Fort Hill finished with significant advantages in shots (12-6) and corners (5-1).
Brauer made five saves for the Sentinels’ eighth shutout of the season.
The Sentinels’ backline made things difficult for the area’s all-time leading scorer Sammy Scritchfield, who came into Saturday’s contest with 43 goals on the season and 151 for his career.
“We think we have the best defense in the area (and the) best goalie in the area,” Steckman said. “We get that one goal, or however many goals it takes, and those guys lock it down.”
Poland stopped eight shots for the Seahawks, who were held scoreless for just the second time this season.
“They put it in, we didn’t stop it, and that’s part of the game,” Lighthouse coach David Ziler said. “We got young guys in there playing, I mean my backline has ninth graders on it. And you’re competing against the best team in the area, I think we did fine.”
“I think we played great defensively.”
Fort Hill will have an extended break before competing in the Class A West Region playoffs.
Lighthouse qualified as the No. 2 seed for the Maryland State Christian School tournament and will host Greater Grace Christian in the first round on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.
Lighthouse defeated Greater Grace in penalty kicks during a regular-season tournament last month.
The winner will take on either No. 3 seed Rockbridge Academy or No. 6 Southern Maryland Christian in Thursday’s semifinal round.
“This is a tough team,” David Ziler said about Fort Hill. “So if we can compete here, then hopefully we can compete in all levels of our state playoffs that we’re going to be in and our national run that we’re going to try to make.”