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Sports

Chantilly's Football Season Comes to a Close

Chargers can't keep up with West Potomac in 35-7 loss.

An early lead over the West Potomac Wolverines quickly evaporated on Friday and the Chantilly Chargers suffered their worst loss of the season, 35-7, to the West Potomac Wolverines. 

Sonny Romine struggled to move the ball on offense after an opening drive touchdown, and Chantilly had run just 19 plays by the end of the first half. By that time, the Wolverines already led 21-7, and the Chargers failed to recover. Romine completed just three of eight passes for a total of eight yards, although he did add 84 rushing yards, and came out of the game late in the third quarter with an apparent injury. He kept his helmet off for the remainder of the game and was talking to a trainer aside from the rest of the team.

His replacement, sophomore Tommy Vance, had equal difficulty against West Potomac's relentless blitz and the Chargers found themselves on defense nearly the entire game.

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It was a stark contrast to Chantilly's opening drive. Romine completed his first two passes and Will Hill-Pensamiento and DeAndre Harris moved the ball efficiently on the ground. Hill-Pensamiento had an 11-yard run and Harris followed with a 33-yard burst before scoring from three yards out. West Potomac's Caleb Henderson, the region's leading passer, then missed on his first three attempts and the Wolverines were forced into what would end up being their only punting situation.

Hill-Pensamiento never broke through the secondary as he had done so many times this season and finished with 74 yards on 18 carries. Henderson and Wolverines' running back Brandon Johnson, on the other hand, were just getting started. Henderson was a perfect five of five passing over West Potomac's next two drives, each of which ended with Johnson touchdown runs from inside the 10-yard line.

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With a  14-7 lead, the Wolverines got good field position near midfield after a Chantilly punt with about three minutes left before halftime. Unwilling to settle, Henderson showed why he's already one of the region's best signal callers as a sophomore and found Tyrone Jenkins in the back corner of the end zone for an 11-yard TD with five seconds left on the clock. Henderson finished 15-of-28 for 207 yards.

Johnson, who finished with 202 yards on 26 carries, added two more touchdowns in the second half from 33 and 16 yards out. The last one came with 3:53 left in the game and put the game out of reach.

The Chargers initially appeared ready to build on their regional runner-up and state quarterfinalist finish in 2010. They pulled off the season's first major upset, a 22-14 win over Stone Bridge, and outscored their first five opponents by an average of 25 points. A grueling Concorde District schedule proved to be too much though, as consecutive losses to Westfield, Oakton and Centreville derailed any momentum Chantilly might have built.

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