NEW PALESTINE — It was just like old times.
From 2013 to 2019, in the regular season, New Palestine won them all and the Hoosier Heritage Conference title.
Those times returned Friday at Kelso Stadium.
The Dragons, ranked No. 1 in Class 4A, finished off a 9-0 season — 7-0 in the HHC— with a 47-7 victory over Delta.
With the victory, New Palestine claimed the program’s 12th unbeaten regular season and eighth in the last 10 years. It’s their 12th HHC championship and 22nd league crown overall. They’ve won 11 HHC titles in the last 14 years.
“It feels great. That’s obviously the (regular season) goal,” senior safety Baylor Hurst said. “It’s good to bring it back, especially when you’re a part of it.”
It didn’t come as easy as the score might indicate, or determined as early as some other regular season games.
When Delta quarterback Kaiden Bond connected with receiver Caleb Elliott on a 24-yard touchdown strike with 6:36 left until halftime, the Eagles cut the Dragons lead to 14-7.
“Once we got over a few speed bumps at the beginning, and got rolling, things started going as planned,” Hurst said.
“We got our stuff together,” New Palestine senior wide receiver/defensive back Blaine Nunnally said. “We watched film on them and knew they were pretty good when they wanted to be. They came out and played great, but we turned it around real quick.”
As soon as the Eagles made it a one-score game, the Dragons began pulling away.
Junior running back Grayson Thomas had touchdown runs of 34 and 38 yards before halftime to give New Palestine a 27-7 halftime lead. Thomas had three first-half scores. He found the end zone on a 2-yard run on the first play of the second quarter for a 14-0 lead.
He added two more long scoring runs in the third quarter, a 44-yarder and a 27-yarder.
Unofficially, Thomas finished with 18 carries for 185 yards and five touchdowns, after getting just six yards on his first four totes.
The passing game began making plays, too.
Nunnally caught a 29-yard TD pass from senior quarterback Daniel Tippit IV to put the game in running clock mode with 3:27 left in the third quarter.
It was the final score of the game. Nunnally finished with nine catches for 135 yards.
After starting the game 6 of 13, Tippit was 15 of 25 for 214 yards and two touchdowns. Isaiah Thacker had four catches for 69 yards, including the game’s first score.
Thacker made the catch and a quick move on the Delta defender and sprinted to the end zone with 5:49 left in the opening period. Senior kicker Brendan Tanskley added the PAT for a 7-0 lead.
“It’ll feel good for the night,” Nunnally said of going unbeaten and winning a conference title. “Next week’s mission starts (this morning). We can have fun (Friday) next week’s mission starts (Saturday). Winning the conference is not the end goal.”
The Class 4A Sectional 22 tournament begins next week. Right off the bat the top-ranked Dragons play defending state champion and biggest rival Mt. Vernon, in Fortville. The Marauders won their fifth straight game Friday, 63-45 at Yorktown.
