High School Football

Pope Comes Back From 15-Point Deficit To Defeat Rival Sprayberry

MARIETTA, Ga.,None — The Pope Greyhounds came back from a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit to stun Sprayberry, 27-21 in the Sports Zone Thursday Night Game of the Week.

Greyhounds senior quarterback Holland Frost scored on a 1-yard touchdown run with 16 seconds left in the game to complete the comeback.

The Yellow Jackets were in control throughout the first 37 minutes of the game, leading 14-6 at halftime and 21-6 in the fourth quarter, before  a furious rally by the Greyhounds allowed them to improve their record to 6-1.

Sprayberry led 7-6 with only seven seconds remaining before halftime.  With the ball on their own 27-yard line, instead of running out the clock, the Yellow Jackets aired it out, as Jacob Chesser hit Tye Richardson over the middle.  Richardson then glided toward the sideline and flew untouched into the end zone for a 73-yard touchdown and a 14-6 Sprayberry halftime lead.

The Yellow Jackets extended that lead just 30 seconds into the fourth quarter, as Torrey Richardson returned a fumble 16 yards for a touchdown that made it 21-6.

From that point, the comeback was on.

Just 55 seconds after going down by 15 points, Frost threw a perfect 59-yard strike to Jared Walton.  The point-after-try was blocked, so Sprayberry's lead was trimmed to 21-12.

Frost went back to the air moments later, as he hit sophomore Mason Shiflett for a 15-yard score.  The PAT cut the deficit to 21-19 with 5:41 left.

Then with less than a minute remaining in the fourth, the Greyhounds ran two consecutive plays inside the 5-yard line, both of which were stuffed.

On 3rd-and-goal, Frost rolled out and kept it himself, diving in for the 1-yard score to give Pope its first lead of the night with only 16 seconds left.  The 2-point conversion provided the winning margin.

Next week's Thursday Night Game of the Week has Dutchtown visiting Griffin.  You can watch the game on ME-TV, which is Comcast Channel 248 and Charter Channel 126.