Despite Furious Finish, Pope Misses the Playoffs
| Courtesy of: | The Greyhound Tracks Newspaper |
by Jessica Hale
For the Pope Greyhounds, the 2009 football season could not have ended on a better note, despite the team not making it to the playoffs. The team pulled out of a four-game slump made an amazing comeback, winning five games in a row, the last one being against long time rival Walton High School Friday for a 6-4 season: the best in ten years.
From the start of the game, Pope took the lead with a 13 yard touchdown by senior captain Marcorus Garrett and a following two-point conversion which put the score at 8-0. Sophomore quarterback Holland Frost then proceeded to score an additional 6 yard touchdown, and a kick by Matt Broshar brought the score up to 15-0. Walton managed to get in a 3-point field goal, closing the gap to 15-3 by the end of the first half.
The Raiders seemed to get their act together in the second half, driving the Greyhounds down the field twice, bringing the score to 15-10 and then 15-16 leading into the last 15 minutes of the game.
During a double-fumble play in which the ball passed back and forth between the teams in less than two minutes, Frost threw around 55 yards to wide receiver Garrett Brown for yet another touchdown, bringing the lead back to Pope with 21-16.
After that victory seemed inevitable when Pope intercepted a Walton pass and kept possession of the ball until Broshar kicked another 3 pointer, raising the score, for the last time, to 24-16. All the greyhounds had to do then was simply keep the Raiders away from the end zone for the remaining few minutes of the game.
The triumph over Walton in a way was an accomplishment for Pope High School. Since the year 2000, when Pope won 37-23, the Greyhounds have continuously tried and failed to defeat the Raiders. Ten years and three coaches later, Pope can maybe now look for another winning streak like the one it experienced between the years 1992 and 1995, where Walton was simply another school to beat.
The game put both schools at a 6-4 season record, knocking Walton from the playoffs. Leading up to Week 11 of high school football, Pope had a chance to make it into the playoffs because of the controversy concerning the last two spots for the playoff brackets.
For instance, according to the PrepCountry.com Bracket Previews, if both Kell and Walton had won Friday night, the bracket spots would have been secure, with Lassiter #1, Roswell #2, Walton #3, and Kell #4. If both Kell and Walton had lost, Pope and Centennial (assuming a victory against Wheeler with a 0-8 record), would then vie for the coveted third and fourth place seeds based on point differences in previous season games.
If Kell lost to Milton but Walton defeated Pope, Milton would be seeded fourth in the playoffs after winning a tie-breaker with Centennial (again assuming a victory against Wheeler with a 0-8 record).
If Walton lost but Kell won, Kell would be seeded third and there would be a three way tiebreaker between Walton, Pope and Centennial (again assuming a victory against Wheeler with a 0-8 record) for the fourth place position, yet Centennial would obtain the spot.
As events turned out, Kell defeated Milton 45-21, Pope defeated Walton 24-16, and Centennial likewise triumphed over Wheeler 35-6, thus bringing Kell to third and Centennial to fourth within the region, knocking both Walton and Pope out of the running. First place Lassiter beat second place Roswell 42-25, making Lassiter 6AAAAA champions.
However the playoff brackets turn out, this season has been a victory for the Pope Greyhounds both in attaining the first winning season record (6-4) in ten years and overcoming a seemingly unbeatable team. Pope can only train and look forward to an even more successful season than this one.
Related Posts:
- Pope’s Victory Over Milton Eagles May Pull Them Into Playoffs
- Volleyball 5A Championship: Pope over Walton
- Pope Basketball Off to a Great Start
- Cross Country: 6AAAAA Region Turnout with Two State Qualifiers from Pope
- Update: Pope OG Thomas O’Reilly
This entry was posted on Saturday, November 7th, 2009 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Football, Georgia . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.