HAGERSTOWN, Md. – Barrett Chomor entered South Hagerstown’s School Stadium as a scared, unassuming freshman on Saturday.
But the first-year player for North Hagerstown left the field as a certified gamebreaker.
Chomor, the only freshman listed on North’s roster, grabbed a sideline pass that ignited a 35-yard sprint to the end zone to score her second touchdown of the game with 5:32 remaining to give the Hubs the needed breathing room to collect a tight 20-6 victory over South Hagerstown in the flag football season opener for both teams.
The game turned into a tug-of-war for 21 minutes after each team scored in the second quarter to give North a 7-6 halftime lead. That ended when North quarterback Kira Showe found Chomor open on the sideline.
“Actually, I was really surprised,” Chomor said. “I was really scared. It was my first ever football game.”
Chomor grabbed the ball and reacted like a seasoned veteran. She squirted past South’s defenders and won the race to the end zone. Showe ran in a one-point conversion to give the Hubs a 13-6 lead.
“I was running and dipping my hips to get past them, and, I guess, I just got away,” she said.
Chomor may have set up the big play with her 12-yard TD catch in the second quarter.
“We were supposed to run a play, but I saw no one was guarding me downfield, so I decided to switch at the last minute and go where they weren’t guarding,” she said.
“The girl that was supposed to be inching towards me was on the other side. I made eye contact with (Showe) by making a jab step and, when I turned around, she was staring right at me.”
Showe hit Caroline Eackstine with a conversion pass for a 7-6 lead. Chomor’s first score allowed North to go back to the well again.
“The first one, she did run her route and went ‘Oh wait, I’m still covered.’” said North coach Madison Mertz. “That’s when she was down the field.
“This one, it was a planned route where she broke it open. The quarterback saw she was open immediately.”
Now trailing by seven with 5 ½ minutes remaining, South needed to make a move quickly to get back into the game.
On the second play following North’s score, South quarterback Ashley Cortez was picked off by North’s Ashley Hoffman, who returned the interception 18 yards for a touchdown with 4:40 remaining.
Showe found Zaya Urgent on a two-point conversion pass to push the lead to 14 points. North scored twice in 52 seconds to put the game virtually out of reach.
“We have a lot of new pieces this year. We lost some key seniors,” Mertz said. “We still have some veteran players, but it’s definitely a growing year with a lot of building blocks. We have so many athletes. Like, I couldn’t be happier with the girls that I have. They’re coming together.”
South is also in the youthful roster situation and showed some to the growing pains.
“We came out strong, but we allowed mental mistakes to hurt us,” said Mar Patterson, the Rebels new head coach. “It really took a toll on us in the second half by getting away from our team plan.
“They’re young teens, so we need to learn from our mistakes today. Come back to drawing board, come Monday, and fix some things and come out ready to go, come next game.”
South took the early 6-0 lead at the 9:28 mark of the second quarter.
An Illegal contact penalty on a pass gave the Rebels a second shot at a score from the 25. Cortez connected with Ariyanah Freeman to the right side. Freeman made a spin move and cut to the left to get into the end zone. The conversion failed, but the Rebels had the lead.
From there, things began to bog down for the Rebels.
“I saw a lot of good for a young team that we have,” Patterson said. “I don’t know if you looked at a roster. Ninety-five percent of our team is freshmen. Varsity alone, you have 6 starters that are a freshman.
”You take a young team like this and you’re trying to develop. So, I’m very, very proud of my ladies. They’ve been working very hard. I got here late. I wasn’t hired until the end of August. I’ve only had a couple weeks of practices. So, for the three weeks of practice that we’ve had, I’m very extremely proud of these ladies.”
