NEW PALESTINE — New Palestine entered Friday night’s game with two losses to begin the season against higher-classed opponents.
With a young team, getting that first win can be half the battle.
After losses to Class 6A Westfield and Class 5A Decatur Central, the Dragons got into the win column for the first time this season with a 30-22 win over Class 3A Yorktown to open up the Hoosier Heritage Conference season.
“It’s huge to get this one. It gets that monkey off of your back of the young guys feeling that pressure. They all grew up on our youth fields watching us win a lot of games, and they want to be a part of that,” New Palestine head coach Kyle Ralph said. “That’s the great thing about New Palestine football, those young kids want to be a part of this, but there’s a lot of pressure that comes with it. They don’t accept losing games, they want to win and win a lot, but that starts to wear on you. To get that first one out of the way will hopefully help us out.”
The win was far from mistake-free though, and came down to an incomplete Yorktown Hail Mary pass in the end zone on the final play.
In the first half the Dragons had three turnovers, a turnover on downs, committed five penalties, were sacked twice, and had multiple run plays stopped in the backfield.
“We just have to get better. Whether it’s more drill work or more intensity. The ball security tonight was horrendous. We’ve gone seasons without this many fumbles,” Ralph said. “But it’s young kids trying to make plays. What you don’t want is for kids to go into a shell. We’ll deal with the growing pains, and as long as they keep pushing forward we’ll be okay.”
But for all the bad, there was good to go along with it.
Two interceptions by the Dragons defense, less than 100 yards of offense allowed, and two second-quarter scores helped fuel the Dragons to a 14-9 halftime lead.
The Tigers struck first after a bad snap on a Dragons punt gave them starting field position inside of the New Palestine 10-yard line. A stand by the Dragons defense led to a Yorktown field goal to open the scoring.
The following two New Palestine drives ended in a lost fumble, and a 13-yard interception return for a touchdown by Yorktown’s Wilson Webster to give the Tigers the early 9-0 lead.
From there, the Dragons began to settle in.
Two of the final three drives of the half ended in New Palestine scores for a 15-9 halftime lead.
On the first, quarterback Gavin Neal hit a wide-open Ty Mitchell in the end zone for a 30-yard touchdown, and after a Connor Jacobia interception gave the Dragons great starting field position, Neal took a quarterback keeper 12 yards for the score.
“Everyone is going to want to stop Grayson [Thomas], and if that’s what the plan is then Gavin is going to have to run the football, and he did a good job of it tonight,” Ralph said. “Overall he played a really nice game, he kept his feet moving and had great vision downfield.”
Another interception by the Dragons defense in the red zone in the closing seconds of the half helped them enter halftime ahead.
In the third quarter, the two teams traded touchdown runs. Yorktown’s Ayden Ewing broke off a 48-yard score, and later in the quarter, Thomas punched in a 1-yard run.
Ten straight Dragons points to open the fourth seemed to put them in the driver’s seat in the closing minutes, but a late score and stop by the Tigers made things closer than expected.
A 43-yard pass from Mason Moulton to Ephraim Daugherty cut the Dragons lead to eight, and on the next possession, the Tigers stuffed the Dragons on third and one and fourth and one to regain possession in the closing minute.
After a few pass completions moved the ball into Dragons territory, Moulton’s final heave was knocked incomplete.
–
New Palestine 30, Yorktown 22
Yorktown (2-1, 0-1);9;0;6;7; — ;22
New Palestine (1-2, 1-0);0;14;6;10; —;30
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
Y – Julian McKay 22 FG, 5:51
Y – Wilson Webster 13 interception return (PAT failed), :28
2nd Quarter
NP – Ty Mitchell 30 pass from Gavin Neal (Jake Wells kick), 10:06
NP – Neal 12 run (Wells kick), 6:12
3rd Quarter
Y – Ayden Ewing 48 run (conversion failed), 9:01
NP – Grayson Thomas 1 run (conversion failed), 6:05
4th Quarter
NP – Thomas 8 run (Wells kick), 11:42
NP – Wells 24 FG, 3:33
Y – Ephraim Daugherty 43 pass from Mason Moulton (McKay kick), 2:40
