Pope three-peats flag football state championship in dramatic fashion

The promotion to Division 5 proved no issue for the Pope Greyhounds, who won their third flag football state championship in a row Wednesday against the McEachern Indians 14-13 with a dramatic extra-point conversion as time expired.

“They shocked me every time that I thought I couldn’t be shocked any more,’” head coach Kevin Fraser said of his team.

Pope has been in three divisions in the past three years and won the state championship in each. The Greyhounds finished the year 20-3, and look right at home in the higher division.

With under two minutes remaining, Pope took possession trailing 13-7. Quarterback Abbey Bensman quickly moved the Greyhounds down the field. After an illegal contact foul at the 1-yard line extended Pope’s drive, Kourtney Kalman scored on a 1-yard rush to tie the game with five seconds remaining.

Bensman completed the one-point conversion to Lily Joswick for the win.

The McEachern Indians had outscored their playoff opponents 127-0 entering the title game.

They shut out Pope for three and a half quarters. Pope looked all but finished when Bensman threw her second interception of the game with six and a half minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

Pope finally broke through when Bensman found Elizabeth Kelly in the end zone with 3:47 remaining. The touchdown marked the first postseason points surrendered by the Indians. Bensman completed a one-point conversion to Kourtney Kalman to make the score 13 to 7.

A crucial pass break up by Joswick on the Indians’ ensuing drive gave the Greyhounds the ball back. Joswick made a game-saving breakup in the Greyhounds’ semifinal win over Lambert.

“I feel like we just keep getting bigger and better,” said Joswick, following her late game heroics that included Wednesday’s game-winning catch. “We’ve come back before so we were just trying to keep it up.”

McEachern’s first touchdown came on an Ava George 39-yard touchdown pass to Jaedalyn Hull with 30 seconds remaining in the first half. The Indians scored again late in the third quarter on a Michala Butler 1-yard rush. Hull caught the extra point to put the Indians up 13-0.

Fraser and his team have moved up through three divisions in three years, and have triumphed in them all. This latest win knocked off the defending Division 5 champs.