Omar Hassan fashioned enough big plays in River Hill’s football season opener Friday night to fill a season-long highlight reel.

In the Hawks’ 16-6 victory over Long Reach in Columbia, Hassan tossed what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown, returned an interception for a score, and fueled a game-icing drive in the fourth quarter, which culminated in Vishaal Gudapati’s 22-yard field goal. During the march he connected on a long strike to senior wideout Matt Behrmann and executed some key quarterback-designed runs.

Hassan’s efforts helped River Hill start its 2022 season on a promising note and avenged a 14-7 loss to the Lightning last fall in Howard County league play.

“Omar, he came up last year for the playoffs, but this is his first year playing quarterback on the varsity,” said River Hill coach Brian Van Deusen, whose quarterback went 5-for-5 with 87 yards through the air. “He did an awesome job there, and he never comes off the field. He excelled on both sides of the ball. His pick-six was kind of the game-sealer there and big time throws in critical situations.”

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Hassan’s productive night for the Hawks (1-0 overall and Howard County) was setup by senior Mbj Motoni’s momentum-changing second quarter interception. The Lightning (0-1, 0-1 Howard) were holding a 3-0 lead following a first quarter 22-yard field goal by Rowan Shanley, and they had just stuffed a River Hill drive at their 37.

Motoni stepped in front of a Brice Koontz pass on Long Reach’s first play from scrimmage, following the defensive stand, and returned it to the Lightning’s 23-yard line with 6:32 left in the first half.

“You can’t turn the ball over,” Long Reach coach Jamie Willis said. “And when you turn the ball over with a team that runs the ball the way they do and they don’t try to give up big plays, it kills you. It just turns everything around.”

Three plays later, Hassan, rolling to his left, found an open Behrmann (72 receiving yards) for a 30-yard touchdown strike as the River Hill split end tip-toed down the visiting sideline to outrace a pair of Long Reach defensive backs for a 7-3 lead with 4:57 remaining in the half.

Hassan released the ball just prior to taking a heavy blow.

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“The dude was running right at me,” said Hassan of the defender. “I saw my receiver Matt break down, and I just let it go.”

Three plays later, Hassan, playing defensive back, leaped for a Koontz pass and returned the interception 34 yards along the River Hill sideline for a 13-3 lead with 3:13 remaining in the second quarter. The ensuing extra point attempt by Gudapati was blocked.

“I was doing my back pedal and saw the dude run the end (route),” Hassan said. “Coach made us practice that play all week, so I knew it was coming in a moment. I just read it, saw the ball, and took off. It was a game changer.”

After a scoreless third quarter, the Lightning, exclusively on runs between the tackles, drove the ball 63 yards to cut the lead to 13-6 on a 24-yard field goal by Shanley with 9:20 remaining in the contest.

The Hawks sealed the victory, however, through a 10-play, 62-yard drive that ate nearly eight minutes off the clock and resulted in Gudapati’s field goal, following back-to-back false start calls on River Hill that were initially marked off to the 15.

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Before Gudapati attempted the kick, the game’s head official stopped play again and stated that Long Reach had actually declined the penalties, moving the ball back to five, thus preserving more time for the Lightning to mount a potential game-tying touchdown drive if the kick had missed.

“Obviously, I’m going to be nervous, but I’m going to trust my holder, my snapper, my team,” Gudapati said. “Even if it was back five, 10 yards back, I was still confident in myself and my team. This is all something we’ve worked on the last 2-3 weeks. This is my first field goal. I was nervous, but you have to treat everything the same.”

Hassan kick-started the eventual game-winning drive with a 36-yard strike in double coverage to Behrmann that placed the ball on the Long Reach 31-yard line. Hassan then picked up a pair of first downs to move the ball to the Lightning 10-yard line on a pair of quarterback keepers.

His counterpart, Koontz (6-of-15, 87 yards) tossed four straight incompletions, including a near second pick-six for Hassan, ending any possible Long Reach comeback in the final minute of the contest.

“We’ll be better,” Willis said. “We’ve got to be better. No one ever said we were going to be undefeated. You don’t have to be undefeated to win a state championship or the county championship. Right now, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

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RIVER HILL 16, LONG REACH 6

River Hill 0 13 0 3 - 16

Long Reach 3 0 0 3 - 6

First quarter

Long Reach - Rowan Shanley 22 field goal

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Second quarter

River Hill - Matt Behrmann 30 pass from Omar Hassan (Vishaal Gudapati kick)

River Hill - Omar Hassan 34 interception return (kick blocked)

Fourth quarter

Long Reach - Rowan Shanley 24 field goal

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River Hill - Gudapati 22 field goal

An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Long Reach kicker Rowan Shanley.