CUMBERLAND — Fort Hill wasted little time Friday night and neither did Kwam Kassim.

The quick-strike Sentinels, with seven plays covering more than 20 yards in the first half, built a commanding 26-0 lead and beat Keyser 29-8, in front of a near full house at Greenway Avenue Stadium.

Kassim scored three touchdowns in the first half and Dakota Welsh ran for the other as the Sentinels (2-0) amassed 374 yards in the first half, and 462 for the game. Three of Fort Hill’s four scoring drives covered 80 yards or more, and Kassim set the tone early with three big plays in the first five minutes.

First, he pounced on a Fort Hill fumble on a third down that extended the opening drive and, after a penalty, broke through the line and bounced outside, getting big blocks from Nathan Steckman and Colton Sibley, on a 53-yard touchdown run just 1:45 into the game.

After a Keyser punt, the Sentinels line opened up another big hole off left tackle for the speedy Kassim, who this time got big blocks from Steckman and Nick Greise on a 45-yard dash. It gave Kassim 98 yards on only two carries, and Fort Hill a 13-0 lead after only 4:43.

“We have big play capability but also blocking, and our guards did a great job,’’ said Fort Hill coach Todd Appel. “We lined up in our slot formation and Alex Weisenmiller did a great job kicking and Nick Greise, a sophomore, did a great job getting up field leading Kwam, and Kwam made great moves to the outside. We opened up our offense a bit late in the first half and showed we can throw the ball around a little bit, and got into a two-minute offense. We’re very fortunate and blessed to have people on the edges who can carry the ball, and we have Devin who can run the ball and throw the ball.

“Keyser’s well-coached and Sean Biser does a great job. Their line blocks well, and (Scott) Kitrell runs the ball well and is tough on defense. It was a good football team that we beat tonight. And it gets tougher as it goes on, with Mt. St. Joe’s next and Martinsburg in a couple of weeks, so it doesn’t get any easier for us. We’ve got to work a little harder and see what we can do.”

What the Sentinels did last night was dominate the first half, 26-0 in points and 374-93 in yardage. Still, it was only 13-0 late in the first half when Welsh capped an 81-yard, seven-play drive with a 24-yard run up the gut with 3:46 left in the half.

Keyser (0-2) moved the ball inside the Fort Hill 5 late in the first half when Kassim struck again. On second-and-goal, Kassim got an interception in the end zone on a ball that bounced in and out of a Keyser receiver’s arms with 1:05 left in the half.

What could have been a Keyser touchdown ended up, four plays later, being a Fort Hill touchdown and a 14-point swing. The 80-yard, four-play, 48-second march began with a 35-yard run by Welsh to the Keyser 45. Lee hit Colton Sibley for 20 yards to the 25, Welsh went up the middle for 21 to the 4, and Lee found Kassim in the end zone for a 4-yard touchdown pass and 26-0 lead 17 seconds before the half.

“We’re disappointed that we lost. And after we threw the interception I was not happy, because we let up,’’ said Biser. “But we made some adjustments and challenged our kids at halftime, and they came out and responded and did what we asked them to do. If they can do that, we have a chance to be okay. We’ll be fine.”

Keyser took the third-quarter kickoff and put together its finest drive of the evening, which led to its first touchdown of the season. It covered 72 yards in 13 plays and consumed 6:17. Tyler Biser had 14- and 12-yard passes to Kadeem Garland, and Scott Kitrell scored on a two-yard burst. Biser ran for the conversion.

The Sentinels, who drove into Keyser territory on all six of its first-half possessions, managed just a 32-yard field goal by Josh Borland in the second half. It came with 9:20 left in the fourth quarter.

“I think there was a letdown,’’ said Appel. “We have to really work on it. We play well in the first half ... we come out like gangbusters. I don’t know if we’re tired or out of shape or just think we have the game won, but that’s something we definitely have to work on. We got beat in the second half, 8-3. We won the first half 26-0, but we have to get better in both halves.”

Biser, whose team lost its opener 22-0 at Wayne, said the second half gave his team plenty to build upon.

“Take away those two sweeps early, and its 15 ... 16-8,” he said. “They hurt us early. Once we got adjusted and didn’t give that to them anymore, we were okay. We kind of found our sealegs a little bit, and the kids started playing harder. I hate to lose, and it’s something we’ll never accept, but we have to learn from what we did tonight, and keep building on it. The second half was 8-3. We can work with that.”

R.C. Pratt led Keyser with seven carries for 47 yards.

Kassim, Welsh and Todd Dicken had interceptions for Fort Hill, which forced five turnovers.

Fort Hill hosts Mount St. Joseph and Keyser makes its home debut against Northern on Friday night.

Contact Mike Mathews at mmathews@times-news.com.