GOOD HOPE, Ala. – The Fairview Aggies and the Good Hope Raiders faced off against each other Thursday night at James W. Shabel Stadium for the first time since 2009 and thanks to another dominant rushing performance from Eli Frost, Fairview cruised past Good Hope 27-6 to improve to 3-1 on the season.
It didn’t take long for Fairview to get on the scoreboard first. After a holding penalty to start out the series, Frost found a huge hole on the right side, and no one was able to catch up to him as he took off the right sideline and scored on a 70-yard run on just the second play to give the Aggies a 7-0 lead only 1:28 into the game. Good Hope looked to answer on its opening series as Colten Whatley found Tyler Cone for eight yards and a first down. Later on third down, Whatley found Cone for three yards and on fourth down, he connected with K’mal Bell for five yards and another first down.
Later on, a personal foul on Fairview moved the ball to the 15. But on third down, the Raiders slowly started to go backwards as they got called for holding. Two plays later, Cade Yeager picked off a Whatley pass and returned it to the 47 to give the Aggies excellent field position. Behind punishing runs by Frost, Fairview moved the ball down the field. A 24-yard run by Frost quickly put the Aggies on the 27. Later on, Frost gained 15 yards to put them at the three and ended up scoring on the next play to give the Aggies a 14-0 lead with 48 seconds left in the opening period.
Fairview ended up recovering the ball on the kickoff and looked to add another touchdown on its next series. Frost picked up a first down on a huge fourth down play to keep the drive alive, but an Aggie fumble was recovered by the Raiders’ Horace Wooten at the 21. On the first play, Whatley got sacked by Frost for a six-yard loss and the Aggies looked to have forced a punt, but they got called for a personal foul, keeping the drive alive for Good Hope. Whatley used his legs and his arm to help the Raiders pick up a pair of first downs, but a pair of penalties quickly put a halt to their series as they were later forced to punt.
A pass interference penalty on Good Hope kept Fairview’s drive alive, and later on, a penalty on Good Hope on fourth down once again kept the Aggie drive alive. Back-to-back big runs by Frost quickly had Fairview at the nine. But the Raider defense stood tall on fourth down as they stuffed Frost for no gain. The Aggies would go into the half with a 14-0 lead over Good Hope.
The Raiders got the ball to start out the second half and big runs by Kaleb Jones and Whatley helped them get a first down. The Aggie defense stood tall, though, after that as Whatley was stopped just a yard short of the first down on fourth down. The Aggies kept feeding the ball to Frost as he continued to wear down the Raider defense. A 25-yard run by Frost put them at the 18. A couple of plays later, Frost found a huge hole on the right sideline and didn’t get touched on his way to a 20-yard score to give Fairview a 20-0 lead with six minutes remaining in the third quarter. The Raiders looked to get on the scoreboard, and they were helped by a pass interference penalty on the Aggies. Later on, a 29-yard pass from Whatley to Bell quickly put Good Hope at the 15. A holding penalty, though, quickly backed them up and they were later forced to turn the ball over on downs.
Frost quickly broke the back of the Raider defense on the first play in a big way as he quickly found a hole up the middle and took off down the left sideline for a 94-yard score as his fourth touchdown of the game made it 27-0 late in the third quarter. Both teams traded punts and the Raiders got the ball back at the 32 with a chance to avoid the shutout. A 34-yard run by Whatley put Good Hope at the 27 and later on, Jones scampered for 11 more to put them at the nine-yard line. Two plays later, Jones found the end zone on a seven-yard run to make it a 27-6 game with less than four minutes to go in the contest. Fairview milked the remaining time off the clock to end the game and they ended up picking up a 27-6 win over Good Hope.
Frost had another monster game for Fairview (3-1), finishing with 338 yards and four scores; he also recorded a sack as well. Yeager picked off a pass for the Aggies. For Good Hope, Jones finished with 67 yards rushing and a touchdown. Whatley threw for 53 yards and rushed for 80 more. Wooten recovered a fumble for the Raiders.
Fairview will head back home to take on West Point in a huge region game next Friday night while Good Hope will travel to take on Etowah in a big region game as well.
Copyright 2022 Humble Roots, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
