‘Whatever works’: Hagerstown football reaches sectional championship the only way it knows how

HAGERSTOWN, Ind. — As Hagerstown head coach Scott Snodgrass put it, “Whatever works.” That seemed to be the theme of the Tigers’ 41-0 sectional semifinal win over Tindley Friday, and there was no better example than what happened after their first two drives of the game.

Drive No. 1: Mason Romack carried the ball right into the teeth of Tindley’s defense, where the ball popped free for a turnover.

Drive No. 2: Romack couldn’t get control of the handoff from Kayne Ervin, and the ball fell to the ground, recovered by Tindley for another turnover.

“Mason was convinced it was his gloves,” Snodgrass said with a laugh. “He took his gloves off, and the fumbles stopped happening.”

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Not only did the fumbles stop happening, but Romack exploded for 229 yards of total offense and two touchdowns. Everything seemed to click at once for Hagerstown’s offense after Romack made the switch.

“It was my teammate’s gloves,” Romack said with a guilty grin on his face. “The ones I have ripped, so I tried his out and wore them all week. After the first two fumbles, I was like, ‘Yep, I’m getting rid of them.’ I was fine after that, and they didn’t bother me.”

Hey, whatever works.

They joke like it’s all superstitious, but what Romack did was actually something the Tigers have preached all season: Next play. You can’t dwell on the bad play that just happened, or you won’t be focused enough to make any more good plays the rest of the game. Romack made a couple bad plays, made an adjustment kept carrying the ball.

And that works.

Hagerstown kept giving the ball to Romack and Aiden Grover because that’s what has worked all season, and the Tigers punched their tickets to the sectional title game because of it. Grover complemented Romack Friday with 107 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

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Those two are the ones in the spotlight. Everyone knows they’re getting the ball, and everyone knows they’ll be the ones filling up the stat sheet, but they’re the first to admit they need everyone else, too.

“Everyone works together, and it allows us to make those plays happen,” Romack said. “We couldn’t do any of that stuff if it wasn’t for our O-line and D-line taking care of business day in and day out.”

All the other pieces needed to step up even more Friday, as Hagerstown was down a few players. Collin Beaty, Ben Williams and Isaac Schmitz — all toward the top of various team leaderboards on offense and defense — were all out Friday, and Beaty is the only one who might be able to play again this season.

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Everyone else stepped up to the tune of the defense’s first shutout of the year and the offense’s highest-scoring performance since mid-September.

Snodgrass said it’s “crazy” how “we’ve managed to limp our way into the championship” and added that “we’ve just got to keep trying to survive.”

“Some of these guys, the last couple years, haven’t won a single sectional game, so they’re pretty excited right now,” Snodgrass said. “The big thing for them is to just keep going. They’re just now starting to experience winning again. I think, for them, it’s just exciting when they get a shot to do it.”

Going into this Friday’s sectional championship against Sheridan, Hagerstown will be the last Wayne County team left, something “we do take a lot of pride in.” While “last county team standing” has a nice ring to it, “first sectional title since 2010” would sound even better.

“It would be awesome,” Romack said.

“It would be fantastic,” Snodgrass echoed. “We’re going to do everything we can.”

Zach Piatt reports on sports and education for The Palladium-Item. Contact him at zpiatt@gannett.com or on Twitter @zachpiatt13.

This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: Hagerstown football uses 'whatever works' to reach sectional final