HAGERSTOWN – The North Hagerstown flag football team was admittedly tense on Wednesday.
“Our practice yesterday was a little questionable, said senior Kylie Hollinsworth. “We were all kind of nervous and also came into the game really nervous. We were all in the locker room talking about it.”
It took a little longer than a blink of an eye to calm the Hubs at the start of the second year of girls flag football in Washington County.
It took the few extra seconds of a coin flip.
North lost the toss and crosstown rival South Hagerstown opened the game with the ball.
From then on, everything was peachy … as proven by North’s 20-7 victory in the season opener at Mike Callas Stadium. The Hubs were in their element.
“Usually, we are pretty nice on defense. When we flipped the coin and knew we were going to start on defense, that was kind of a spark for us,” Hollinsworth said. “Last year, we always started on defense. Defense is our go-to.”
North followed their old game plan. The Hubs posted a goal-line stand and intercepted three passes to turn away the Rebels. It didn’t hurt that one of the picks ended a South drive on the goal line’s doorstep and another was returned for a score.
“They love defense. I love defense,” said North’s first-year coach Madison Mertz. “I’m very defensive minded. You got to get stops in order to score.
“For them to come out flying around like that, it gives us energy on offense as well. On offense, you are going to struggle sometimes, so defensively, we try to come out and pick it back up. That’s what we want.”
North used a pass-heavy attack to move the ball on the Rebels. But when needed, the Hubs were able to sweep the ball along the outer edges of South’s defense, stretching it to create holes to move the ball.
North quarterback Harley Owen connected of a pair of touchdown passes while connecting on 9 or 27 passes for 117 yards.
But it all started with the defense, which shut out the Rebels until the final 31 seconds of play.
“We have a lot of learning to do,” said South coach Nissa Freeman. “We lost our quarterback this year, and we are trying to develop two new ones. One is brand new freshman who has never played before and had very few experiences last year.
“We have a lot of other weapons to use, but if we don’t have somebody to get the ball down the field to them … We are struggling to make those adjustments.”
South opened with possession of the ball, but was forced to punt after North held the Rebels to seven yards on seven plays.
The Hubs took the ball at their own 14 and marched 62 yards in 12 plays in 10 minutes, 2 seconds for their first score.
North moved the ball with the help of wide runs and misdirection moves to pick up yardage.
“I play lacrosse, so some of my speed comes from there,” said Hollingsworth, who led the Hubs with 35 yards rushing. “We had a couple of plays we messed up on but we were actually getting through (South) pretty easily.
“You just got to shift your hips and get through.”
Owen hit Anna Chamberlain for a 17-yard score with 10:20 remaining in the half. Hollingsworth ran in the conversion for a 7-0 lead.
South’s next drive stalled, giving the Hubs the ball on downs.
The Hubs took over at their 34 and scored with :26 remaining in the half.
Owen hit Zaya Urgent for a 16-yard reception which was enhanced by a South penalty. Urgent scored the TD a play later on a 24-yard pass. Owen hit Lily Alvarado for the conversion for the 14-0 halftime lead.
Urgent protected the lead with an interception to end the half.
South opened the second half with Ashley Cortez’s interception on the first play. But the Rebels’ ensuing drive ended with North’s second interception on the goal line.
The Hubs drove down, but stalled out on the South 7, turning the ball over on downs.
North quickly sealed the game on the first play on defense as Urgent intercepted a Demeria Mitchell pass and returned it 15 yards to make the score 20-0.
The Rebels got on the board with their last drive, going 31 yards in six plays, capped by Trinity Savage finding Aniyah Freeman for a 10-yard scoring pass.
“We did what we had to do last year several times,” Freeman said. “We took a few of our really good players that know the game well and put them in on defense. You always risk upsetting some but we needed something at the end of the game. At the end of the day, it was the right thing to do.
“We’ll go back and look at the film and we’ll see where we have to close those gaps and make improvements.”
North outgained South 165-131 on offense. Savage led South and all runners with 71 yards on 11 carries.
For the Hubs, it was a case of the defense never resting.
“I’m very proud of them. We put in a lot of hard work, a lot of long practices,” Mertz said. “They came out and did what they were supposed to do tonight. They looked really good. We made some quick adjustments during the game that helped us come out on the other side.”
