Sports

Pope Shocks East Paulding

The Greyhounds posted their second come-from-behind win in as many weeks to upset the No. 4 team in Class AAAA.

It very well may have been, as an East Cobb Patch reader stated on our Facebook page, "the biggest win in history." 

For the second time in eight days, Greyhounds staved off what appeared to be likely defeat late in the fourth quarter. 

Last Thursday's over was improbable enough. But the stirring 29-23 win at previously undefeated on Friday is likely to go down in Pope football lore for many years. 

Find out what's happening in East Cobbwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Quarterback Holland Frost's 65-yard touchdown pass to Mason Shiflett with 5:46 to play took down the No. 4 team in Class AAAA. 

But it wasn't just the final result that sent shock waves throughout the Georgia high school football world; it was how Pope manhandled what had been one of the best defenses in the state, as reported by the Marietta Daily Journal

Find out what's happening in East Cobbwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Pope bolted out to a 14-7 lead in the first quarter. East Paulding eventually went ahead 17-14 as the game went back and forth throughout the second half.

The versatile Frost threw for 249 yards and ran for 87 more as Pope totaled 379 yards and scored as many points in four quarters as East Paulding had surrendered in seven previous games combined this season. 

And the Greyhounds' defense shut down the Raiders in the dying minutes to preserve what is among the biggest upsets in Georgia this season. 

This was hardly the same Pope team that fell behind 21-6 last week in the fourth quarter before digging out a masterful homecoming win. 

And it bore little resemblance to a Greyhound squad that was while Frost struggled to play with a broken hand and Myles Everett, one of his main receiving targets, was suspended. 

That loss could loom large in the playoff chase, but for the moment Pope (7-1, 4-1) moves into a three-way tie with Kell and East Paulding at the top of Region 5-AAAA North. 

And that's a place the Greyhounds, who play host to next week, didn't figure to be not that long ago. 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from East Cobb