Perfectionists: Barnegat Flag Football Captures Shore Conference Tournament Title to Finish Undefeated

BARNEGAT – In a year of amazing firsts during the inaugural season of Barnegat flag football, the most incredible one might be that this is the first season sophomore Camila Chamorro has ever played quarterback. 

A player who had only ever lined up at wide receiver on her travel team and was considering walking away from the sport entirely became the engine of an explosive Bengals’ offense that polished off an undefeated season with a 39-12 win over visiting Middletown South in the Shore Conference Tournament championship game on Wednesday night. 

Chamorro threw four touchdown passes and ran for another touchdown to cap a dominant season by top-seeded Barnegat (12-0) in its first year as a program. 

“It’s definitely really emotional,” Chamorro said. “I’m happy about it. I’m really proud of everybody. We were just confident today. Honestly, the nerves wore off last week. We were just ready to beat them today and just be champions.” 

The third-seeded Eagles (10-2) had no answers for Chamorro and her deep receiving corps led by another instant sophomore star, Syrah Holmes, who had six catches for 107 yards and a touchdown, a catch for an extra point and an interception on defense. 

Chamorro finished 17-for-26 for 217 yards and four touchdowns passing and also ran for 52 yards and a touchdown. Freshman Julia Giangregorio added five catches for 61 yards and a touchdown, plus a catch for an extra point. 

The Bengals were lucky Chamorro was out there at all this season. She admittedly was on the fence about whether she was going to even continue playing flag football after taking a year away from the sport as a freshman. She also plays volleyball for Barnegat in the fall. 

“I honestly thought I wouldn’t play again, but then I found out at the end of last year that we were going to have a team here,” she said. “So I was like, ‘OK, I can’t not play.’” 

All she did was lead the Shore Conference with 3,012 yards passing and 44 touchdown passes in her first year as a quarterback while helping power Barnegat to the Shore’s final No. 1 ranking. She also ran for nearly 600 yards and three touchdowns. 

“I knew Syrah is a really good receiver, I knew Julia is a really good receiver, I knew Victoria (Hoffman) is really fast. I knew everybody could do this, but nobody was ever really a quarterback, so I knew I had to step it up,” Chamorro said. “I played a little bit in rec, but on a travel level, I never even would’ve thought I would be a quarterback. But this year I was kind of thrown into it. I wasn’t mad about it.” 

“I kind of took her under my wing,” Barnegat head coach Andrew Petruzzi said. “I kind of developed her into what she is now. Her and I talk almost every day about football and what we need to do, and we’re in agreement.” 

Barnegat finished with the Shore Conference’s No. 1 offense at 33.3 points per game. The Bengals sent a message right away on Wednesday night by putting 26 first-half points on a Middletown South defense that had not given up more than 13 points in a game all season. 

“It’s insane,” Chamorro said. “I feel really overwhelmed. When we were up by a couple points, all the emotions came to me and I was like, ‘Wow, we really did this.’ It feels amazing.” 

“It feels great,” Holmes said. “I believed in us since we first started this whole team. Since the first practice, I knew we could do anything we put our mind to.” 

The Bengals scored on the opening possession of the game and never looked back. Chamorro found Giangregorio for a zig-zagging, 27-yard touchdown and then hit her again for the extra point for a 7-0 lead. 

“It honestly felt amazing to get the team’s flow going and the whole student section and everybody in the crowd cheering us on,” Giangregorio said. 

Holmes picked off a pass to get the ball right back for the Bengals, but Middletown South came up with a stop on fourth-and-goal from the 5-yard line by forcing an incompletion. Barnegat responded by forcing a punt, and Chamorro then took off for a 36-yard touchdown run down the sideline to make it 13-0 with 11:11 left in the second quarter. 

A stop on downs by the Barnegat defense allowed the Bengals to balloon the lead when Chamorro hit a streaking Holmes for a 38-yard touchdown and then found her again for the extra point and a 20-0 lead with 5:31 left in the half. The 6-foot Holmes led the Shore with 986 yards receiving and 20 touchdown catches this year. She, Giangregorio and Chamorro had played together previously on a travel team, so there was instant chemistry. 

“It’s like a magnet. Every time I throw it up, I can trust her, I know she’s going to get it,” Chamorro said about Holmes. “Three people on her, I’ll still throw it. Same thing with Amaya (Martin), same thing with Julia, same thing with pretty much everybody. But me and Syrah definitely have that connection where we just think the same, and you can tell.” 

“They had like three on me the whole time at the beginning, and then when they got off me, that’s when we started scoring,” Holmes said. 

The lead grew to 26-0 at the half after Barnegat freshman Amaya Martin picked off a pass on defense and then hauled in a 17-yard touchdown pass from Chamorro two plays later. 

“I already knew a few girls that played travel, and we had solid players, but I didn’t know we were going to come this far in one year,” Martin said. 

Middletown South got on the board when senior quarterback Cam Czwakiel scored on a 1-yard run in the third quarter to make it 26-6. Barnegat responded with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Chamorro to sophomore Victoria Hoffman that Holmes helped set up with a 26-yard reception. 

The Bengals then put the cherry on top when freshman Mayckelin Portillo took an interception 21 yards to the house for a 39-6 lead. Middletown South added a 62-yard score on a touchdown pass from Czwakiel to senior Ava Loucopoulos in the waning seconds for the final margin. 

Not only did it cap an impressive debut season for the Bengals, it also marked a rare Shore Conference Tournament title in any sport for the Group 2 school in Ocean County. 

“It actually felt amazing that Barnegat is finally getting recognized for a sport,” Giangregorio said. 

“They didn’t think we were going to get far at all, but here we are,” Hoffman said. 

This may just be the start of a historic run by the Bengals. Every statistical leader from this season is back next year, and almost all of them are currently freshmen or sophomores. There are no state playoffs this season, as they will begin in 2027 after the NJSIAA voted to make flag football an official sport in May. 

“It’s definitely the start of an amazing program, and I’m so excited to see what’s ahead,” Giangregorio said. 

One thing is for sure – Chamorro now considers herself a quarterback. 

“I feel more comfortable in it,” she said before smiling. “I think maybe I won’t be a receiver again, and I’ll be happy with it.” 

Scott Stump is the football editor and a reporter for Shore Sports Insider. He first started covering Shore Conference football in 1999 and has covered basketball, baseball and seemingly every other Shore Conference sport at some point. 

Email: scottstump25@gmail.com