New Palestine’s Damon Hockett, Eian Roudebush and Caleb Byers come over to celebrate with head coach Kyle Ralph during a timeout as Whiteland missed a field goal that would have sent the game into overtime during their Sectional 14 championship game at New Palestine High School on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021.
Rob Baker/Daily Reporter
NEW PALESTINE — It is quite common seeing New Palestine play football well into the month of November.
Since Kyle Ralph took over the program in 2013, the Dragons are 104-9. Only the 9-1 team in 2016 didn’t make it past Halloween.
The long list of team accolades during that time include state titles in 2014, 2018 and 2019. They were state runners-up in 2015.
The 2021 squad is preparing for a regional battle Friday night against No. 1 ranked Cathedral (11-1), the 2020 5A state champ, at Tech High School. It’s New Palestine’s 12th regional appearance, sixth under Ralph.
The matchup pits the last three Class 5A state title winners. Cathedral won in 2020 after the Dragons won back-to-back crowns in 2018-19.
However, the 2021 team’s route to achieve similar success to those trophy-toting Dragon teams from the past was quite uncommon.
New Palestine heads into the matchup with the Irish with an overall record of 8-3, one-third of the program’s total losses since Ralph took over. To add to the unusual year, the three losses came in the first four games of the season.
Cathedral is 24-2 over the last two seasons with both losses coming to Class 6A Center Grove, the favorite to win its second straight title in the state’s largest class.
The task will be tough, but even having the chance for the challenging chore seemed to be slim with how the season started.
The Dragons opened with a 31-29 loss at Decatur Central, which lost to Cathedral in the Class 5A Sectional 13 title game last week. They followed up with a 38-14 defeat at Brebeuf, the Class 3A Sectional 28 champion.
After winning the Hoosier Heritage Conference opener, at home, over Yorktown, New Palestine lost 49-10 to conference/county rival Mt. Vernon, another eventual sectional champion in Class 4A.
It wasn’t the typical start of a Dragon football season. They had not lost three of the first four games since 2012 and hadn’t lost the first two games since 2008. Neither of those teams made it past their first sectional game.
“Everyone, from the start of the season, really had us down,” senior linebacker Gus Walling said after he and the Dragons, though trailing most of the game, battled back to beat Whiteland 20-17 in the Class 5A Sectional 14 championship game last Friday. “They didn’t even think we’d be in the sectional championship. To come out with the win really proves the fight in our class. My class has been told we’re the worst class to come through New Pal for a long time, so it feels good to finally win one.”
The fight the Dragons showed from trailing most of the night against Whiteland was the same type of battle Ralph saw from his guys when bouncing back from the 1-3 start.
“We haven’t lost a lot of football games around here, period, let alone three in four weeks,” Ralph said. “You’ve got two choices you can make at that time, I told the boys. You can either meet me and our coaches on the bridge halfway or you can drive that car right off the cliff and go right into the abyss. They made the right choice.
“We made some changes in how we practice and how we approach things. We challenged our kids on a daily and rep-by-rep basis to be better and they bought in. They did it and were rewarded in a major way.”
Since the 1-3 start, the Dragons have won seven in a row by a combined score of 278-62. The stretch started with a 38-3 win over Pendleton Heights on Sept. 17. It followed with an impressive 42-22 win on the road against a strong Greenfield-Central team.
They had three blowout wins over Shelbyville, New Castle and Delta to wrap up the regular season. Prior to the win over Whiteland, the Dragons beat Franklin, 29-7, in a sectional semi-final game.
Like the season as a whole, the sectional title game was one where the Dragons were down and had to fight back.
New Palestine trailed 7-0 and 14-7 in the first quarter, 14-13 at halftime and 17-13 late in the third.
Whiteland scored early on two big plays, a 46-yard quarterback sneak and an 81-yard run.
On Whiteland’s final drive of the game, the New Pal defense stopped the Warriors deep in Dragon territory. Whiteland kicker David Mathis missed a 30-yard field goal, which would have tied the game.
“That’s all maturity,” senior defensive back Madix Johnson said after the victory. “The first game against Decatur Central we gave up some big plays and we shut down. We shut down and we lost that game. (In the sectional championship) where it matters, we gave up two big plays and the maturity showed through. We got the job done and held them to three points the rest of the game.”
Johnson and Walling are the only two senior starters on defense. Quarterback Damon Hockett, offensive lineman Porter May and wide receiver Caleb Byers are the only senior starters on offense.
It’s a youthful team, but still accomplishing big things, just like those teams from the past.
Prior to his players lifting another sectional championship trophy, Ralph addressed the fans at Kelso Stadium, applauding his guys and how they overcame early-season and early-game adversity.
“I’m so proud of these guys and what they’ve accomplished,” Ralph said. “We started the year off not normal New Palestine football standards and that happens when you have a young team, but that right there (winning a sectional championship) is the standard and I’m proud of these guys for achieving it.”
