GREENFIELD — In a game with multiple offensive weapons on both sides, it was the guys in the trenches that made the biggest difference in Friday’s showdown for the top spot in the Hoosier Heritage Conference.
In a grind-it-out second half, New Palestine made the final statement.
Tied 14-14, the Dragons went 52 yards on 11 plays, including nine rushes, to take the lead for good on a 1-yard touchdown run from senior running back Grayson Thomas.
Thomas rushed for 182 yards on 29 carries and had two touchdowns to lead the Dragons, ranked No. 6 in the Class 4A Indiana Football Coaches Association poll and No. 10 in the Associated Press rankings, to a 21-14 victory over Greenfield-Central, ranked No. 5 in both polls, at Myers Field Friday.
New Palestine won its fourth straight game this season and 14th straight against Greenfield-Central, dating back to 2010. The Dragons are 4-2 on the season and retain the HHC Helmet trophy. They’re 4-0 in conference contests.
Greenfield-Central lost for the first time this year. The Cougars are 5-1 and 3-1 in the HHC. It was their first loss since being eliminated in last year’s sectional semifinal round by the Dragons.
Trailing 14-6 at the half, Greenfield-Central took nearly one-half of the third-quarter clock to go 78 yards for a game-tying score.
Payton Foley, subbing for injured starter and team-leading rusher Braylen Benavente at fullback, scored his second touchdown of the game on a 1-yard run. Quarterback Dallas Freeman ran in the two-point conversion to tie the game at 14-14 with 6:02 left in the third. The drive went 15 plays and all were on the ground from the Cougars’ Wishbone offense.
Still tied and with the Cougars in possession to start the fourth quarter, Freeman was sacked by Abe Walling on a fourth-down play.
The Dragons took over and marched down the field for the go-ahead score.
The Cougars’ final try on offense came with 5:28 left. They turned the ball over on downs with 1:21 to go and the Dragons needed just one first down to end it. Thomas went 11 yards on the second play of the drive and slid to the ground knowing his team could run out the rest of the clock.
“It was two teams that hang their hat on physicality, ramming the ball right at each other’s faces,” New Palestine coach Kyle Ralph said. “It was pretty awesome. As a (former) offensive lineman, I enjoyed that. I didn’t enjoy them scoring a touchdown, but I enjoyed the way the second half went.
“That’s what you expect. That’s a veteran football team over there. We’re young, but it’s two teams that are born and bred to be physical and it was really something special to see. If you’re a football fan, I know the second half wasn’t maybe electric, but that was a darn good half of football for both clubs.”
New Palestine sophomore quarterback Gavin Neal threw just four second-half passes, completing two for 16 yards. Freeman was 2 of 5 for 24 yards, with the three incompletions coming on G-C’s last possession.
Foley had 21 carries for 87 yards. G-C running back Jacob Hinton had 13 carries for 94 yards.
“They’ve got some good players and No. 73, Reese (Hill) is a big boy,” New Palestine’s Ohio State-bound lineman Ian Moore said.
Moore, who is 6-foot-6 and 311 pounds did most of his battling against Hill, who is 6-4, 280.
“When I was at nose guard on defense and at tackle on offense, I had my work cut out for me,” Moore said. “It was great to see all of our boys persevere. We had some great big plays and that last drive, that first down was a huge play on our half (of the field), so I’m just really proud of us.
“I’m the leader of those guys and I’m really, really proud of them grinding it out and to keep pushing.”
New Palestine made a statement early, too.
On its first play from scrimmage, starting at the NP 35, wide receiver Ty Mitchell got behind the Greenfield-Central defense and Neal threw a strike for a 65-yard touchdown with only 16 seconds off the game clock.
Following a Greenfield-Central offensive series that had three holding penalties and ended with an interception by Dragon sophomore defensive back Caden Jacobia, New Palestine increased its first-quarter lead to 14-0.
A 10-play, 80-yard drive ended with a 6-yard touchdown run from Thomas. Six of the plays were Thomas rushes for 52 yards. Neal and Mason Hiatt connected on a 36-yard pass play on the drive.
On its second to last possession of the first half, Greenfield-Central let New Pal know it was going to have a game on its hands. The Cougars went 53 yards in 2:45, taking eight plays to finish with a 4-yard touchdown run from Foley. There was a bad snap on the PAT attempt, but the Cougars had cut into the Dragons lead, making it 14-6 with four minutes remaining until halftime.
“We knew coming in to the game we were going to have to play 48 minutes and knew it would be a fight,” Greenfield-Central coach Travis Nolting said. “They obviously got the better end of that. We made too many mistakes, a couple of blown coverages on defense and gave up a couple big plays, had critical dropped passes on offense, and we had a special teams fumble. Those are things you can’t do when you play a team like New Pal. You have to be sharp, but I will tell you this, I was proud of our fight and effort. We’re right there.”
It’s a pretty big (win),” New Pal’s Hiatt added. “With Greenfield being 5-0 this year, I knew they were coming out big to hit us. Keeping the helmet is one of our biggest goals and our rivalry with Greenfield is one of our bigger games of the season. We came out ready to play and I’m happy to bring out the W.”
–
New Palestine 21, Greenfield-Central 14
New Palestine (4-2, 4-0);14;0;0;7;-;21
Greenfield-Central (5-1, 3-1);0;6;8;0;-;14
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
NP –Ty Mitchell 65 pass from Gavin Neal (Jake Wells kick) 11:44
NP – Grayson Thomas 6 run (Wells kick) 2:33
2nd Quarter
GC –Payton Foley 4 run (PAT failed) 4:00
3rd Quarter
GC –Foley 1 run (Dallas Freeman run) 6:02
4th Quarter
NP – Thomas 1 run (Wells kick), 5:28
