NEW PALESTINE — It was a marquee matchup, but only one team lived up to the billing.
Class 4A No. 1/No. 2 New Palestine scored on its first series and added four more touchdowns in the first half alone, in a 49-0 domination of Class 5A No. 2 Decatur Central at Kelso Stadium Friday.
Junior running back Grayson Thomas scored on a 51-yard run 89 seconds into the contest and the Hawks had no answers.
Thomas had touchdown runs of 51, 44 and 24 to give the Dragons a 35-0 lead at the halftime break.
“The holes were always there for me,” Thomas said. “Again, it’s becoming kind of the theme, the Front 5. They lay it all out for me to get to the second level, then go from there.”
As he did a week ago, Thomas took advantage of one of the state’s top offensive lines, led by Louisville committed left tackle Luke Burgess (6-7, 291), highly-sought junior right tackle Ian Moore (6-6, 290) along with Thomas Wood (6-2, 284), Trey Keele (6-1, 273) and Ben Purciful (5-11, 258).
That line also gave throwing time for quarterback Daniel Tippit IV. He threw a 10-yard first-quarter touchdown pass to Isaiah Thacker and added a 51-yarder to Eli Hook in the second. He was 9 of 11 for 177 yards.
“To be able to sit in the pocket, look at the defense, and get the ball where it needs to go is a great thing for a quarterback,” Tippit said. “It doesn’t get any better than this. We get 49 points, a shutout on defense, and special teams were great. It was just a great overall team win.”
With the Dragons up 35 points at halftime, the second half was timed with a running clock.
It didn’t stop the Dragons from scoring quickly. On the second play of the second half, Eian Roudebush intercepted a Bo Polston pass and went 45 yards for another New Pal score.
Thomas, who had three touchdowns and 187 yards last week, had 12 carries for 176 yards and three scores in the two quarters he played.
It wasn’t just the offense doing the damage.
The Dragons had three interceptions and gave little ground the entire night.
Along with Roudebush’s pick-6, A.J. Reierson had a key first-half interception with the Hawks driving deep into Dragons territory.
On a first-and-goal from the New Pal 22, Reierson, a senior linebacker, picked off Decatur Central’s Aycen Stevens and returned the ball 11 yards to the Dragons 24. Five plays later, Tippit connected with Thacker for a 14-0 lead with 3:19 left in the first quarter.
To help set up the score, Tippit had a 39-yard pass play to Kyler Kropp.
New Palestine’s reserves added a fourth-quarter touchdown. Quarterback Brady Armstrong scored on a 7-yard run for the game’s final points. On defense, Daniel Thacker added the third INT in the fourth quarter.
“It was a great game for our guys,” New Palestine head coach Kyle Ralph said. “It was a tough week for us. We were beat up coming off the game last week with Westfield. We had a lot of guys, all the way through Wednesday, still pretty banged up. They kept pushing through and had good days of practice.
“You can’t perform on Friday if you don’t prepare well Monday thru Thursday. (Friday) was just our kids with a really, gritty week of practice and coming out well prepared.”
It was the third meeting between the two programs. New Palestine beat Decatur Central to win the 2018 Class 5A state title. Last season, the Hawks beat the Dragons 31-29 in a Week 2 regular season contest.
“We had a chip on our shoulder from last year,” Moore said. “We lost by two, and missed a last-second field goal. This entire week we’ve been preparing. Coach (Ralph) gave us a great week of practice.”
