Chopticon football loses opener to Oxon Hill

“A season is a journey, and we just have to keep moving forward,” Chopticon head coach Anthony Lisanti said. “We did not make enough plays, we had too many mistakes. You have to give Oxon Hill credit. They played a fundamentally sound clean game with no turnovers. We didn’t take advantage of our opportunities.”

On Friday night, Chopticon was first to strike with 4 minutes and 32 seconds left in the first quarter. Junior quarterback Dominic Crampton hit junior wide receiver Trent Holton with a 9-yard pass for a touchdown. Dylan Edelen kicked the extra point, giving the Braves a 7-0 lead.

Oxon Hill answered when senior quarterback Jy’ir Ingram found junior wide receiver Jaden Byrd in the endzone from 19 yards out to score the first touchdown for the visitors with 1:43 left before halftime. Clippers sophomore kicker Wilber Rivera’s extra point hit the back on one of his own players and Byrd recovered it to run it in for the 2-point conversion, but the officials ruled it was no good, so Oxon Hill trailed 7-6.

Then with heat lightining in the area, the officials suspended the game until Saturday at halftime when play would resume.

First to strike in the second half when play did resume was Oxon Hill as Ingram scored on a 36-yard touchdown run in the first two minutes of the half. Ingram looked for Byrd again for the 2-point conversion and the score was 14-7 Clippers.

Oxon Hill struck again with Ingram seeking out junior running back Corey Watson in the endzone for another touchdown with 3:23 left in the third quarter. However this time, the 2-point conversion was no good, leaving the score at 20-7.

Chopticon still had time in the third as Holton ran 39 yards after catching a pass from Crampton with 1:23 left, bringing the Braves to within 20-14 after Edelen’s extra point.

“It went pretty good except for that last hit that I had,” Crampton said. “The outcome was that we were going beat them because we have a good offensive line, but we didn’t come together as a team. I threw some good balls, but my running game wasn’t that good. I tried to lead the team to get down the field but it just didn’t work.”

Oxon Hill capitalized on a Chopticon fumble in the fourth, running the ball all the way back to Braves’ 1-yard line. Ingram handed off to junior fullback D’marcus Holmes for the touchdown for the game’s final points.

“If your talking about the specific play, my quarterback’s arm is going this way, the ball goes 15 yards,” Lisanti said. “They call it a fumble and return it to the line. When it’s a 6-point game, I was pretty sure it was going to go down to the wire like every time. That kind of took it out of the kids’ hands. But to be honest, you can’t leave it in the officials hands either.”

Ingram was excited about the win and what this means for the start to his last football season with the Clippers.

“It felt pretty good to win,” Ingram said. “We feel a little bit rough, but we will be back next week. It’s all about getting better and better each week. Through all the adversity, it’s all about heart and determination because without that we would have done none of this today.”

Senior running back Will Vanfossen was having a great game until he tore his ACL in the first half, an injury that will mean the end of football for him, according to Lisanti. Also having a good game for the sophomore running back Devyn Vukovich whose job became all the more crucial to the Braves’ offense with Vanfossen on the sideline.

Chopticon (0-1 overall) returns to action on Friday at home versus La Plata. Kickoff is at 6 p.m. La Plata defeated Crossland of Prince George’s County 48-6 in Week 1.

Twitter: @stoeckercolinw