NEW PALESTINE — There were familiar names in familiar places, familiar names in new places, and new names in new places on the Kelso Stadium turf Friday night.
Ranked No. 1 in Class 4A, New Palestine’s football team’s familiarity and newness worked together for a 35-14 win over Class 5A Kokomo Friday.
Four of five touchdown scorers scored their first touchdowns as Dragons and three second-quarter touchdowns were set up by turnovers by the Dragons’ veteran defense.
On his first carry in a Dragon uniform, New Palestine junior quarterback Jacob Davis, a move-in from Ohio, scored on a 27-yard run to tie the game 7-7 with 39 seconds left in the first quarter.
The Dragons then outscored the WildKats 21-0 in the second period. All three touchdowns, thanks to the Red Rage defense, were short-field drives.
Other than returning four of five starters on the offensive line, quarterback was the one offensive spot the Dragons had a veteran returnee, but junior Gavin Neal, who threw for 1,469 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2023, is injured.
Davis threw three touchdown passes and rushed for another in the Week 1 win.
“A couple times the clock got away from him some, but part of that is being new to the system,”New Palestine head coach Kyle Ralph said. “He’ll get better and better as the weeks go on. All in all, he did a great job of leading us, managing the offense, making good decisions, protecting the football, running it when he needed to. For his first-ever start and debut, I’m very proud of him and very happy for him. I think he’ll keep on getting better.”
After a fumble recovery from sophomore linebacker Mason Oglesby — one of 12 returning defensive players that had 20 tackles or more last season — at the Kokomo 44, Davis connected with senior Eli Wasson, a transfer from Triton Central, on a 29-yard touchdown pass.
Davis drew the defense with a pump-fake and then found Wasson across the middle for an easy score.
On the next Kokomo offensive possession, an interception from junior defensive back Cameron Rollyson, one of the Dragons’ returnees that has gone from sub to starter, set the Dragons up for another touchdown.
Starting from their own 44, Davis threw a pair of passes to tight end Oglesby for 22 yards. Caden Jacobia, a defensive veteran who is now part of the Dragons three-player running back rotation, had a carry for 10 yards. Senior Max Wiegand, who has moved from receiver to running back, rushed for nine more yards and Josh Ranes, the team’s second-leading tackler last year from his linebacker position, finished it off with a 4-yard touchdown run.
“We didn’t have to do any of the work, just drive down finish the job and get the credit for it, but it was the defense that got those momentum flips for us,” Davis said.
On Kokomo’s next possession, Ranes did some of his defensive work, intercepting a pass and setting the offense up at the Kokomo 14. Two plays later Davis found Oglesby, the only Dragon that scored Friday that had a previous TD in a Dragon uniform, for a 14-yard score.
The Dragons took a 28-7 lead into the break.
“The turnovers and the short fields were massive, especially against an offense like that,” Ralph said. “You’re going to be up against it you have to drive 50 to 60 yards against a good defense like that. Getting a turnover, taking a little bit of wind out of their sails, having a short field to capitalize off of was a big deal for us. The good part, we capitalized on all of them. We didn’t waste an opportunity down there short. Against a really good team, when you get those golden opportunities, you have to make them pay and we did that tonight.”
Kokomo’s ground-oriented, double-wing offense scored on its opening second half possession, a 3-yard run from quarterback Keemarion Pollard, but took 10:04 off the clock to cut the Dragon lead to 28-14.
Following that initial second-half score, Kokomo’s offensive style was just eating up clock but not producing points.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Kokomo — on a 60-yard punt by Andrew Barker — pushed the Dragons back to their own 1-yard line.
After two penalties against the Dragons they were up against their own goal line, but Davis, on a second-down play, connected with senior Austin McMahan — who bobbled the ball a couple of times before pulling it in — for a school-record 99-yard touchdown pass to push the lead back to 21 points.
“When I saw the ball in the air it felt like the ball was in the air forever,” McMahan said. “I was focused on making the grab, and once I bobbled it I wasn’t even focused on running after the catch, I wanted to make sure I got it. Once I broke away I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, maybe I can score.’”
Davis, who played at Springboro High School last year, finished 10 of 13 for 213 yards and three touchdowns. He had four carries for 15 yards and another touchdown. McMahan had two catches for 106 yards. Oglesby had a team-high six grabs for 65 yards and Wasson had two for 42.
“It was great, a great environment, the fans really showed out.” Davis said. “It was nice to get the win, they expect wins out here so it was nice to get that. Receivers did there job, brought it in, made some great plays, Austin (McMahan) brought that ball in at the end and it really put the hammer on the nail.”
Jacobia led the ground game with a team-high eight carries for 52 yards. Ranes had three for 13 and Wiegand two for five. All three got their first carries as varsity Dragons on Friday.
“There are a lot of familiar faces out here, but there are also a lot of new ones,” Ralph said. “To see those guys step up, Eli Wasson had a big touchdown, McMahan obviously has the huge touchdown. And, for the first time since I’ve been here we’re playing a rotation of running backs. You’re not seeing that constant bell-cow of Grayson Thomas, Charlie Spegal, DuRon Ford, all those guys. That’s just not the team we are this year.
“It takes being unselfish and it takes understanding a touchdown for one is a touchdown for all. Oglesby’s role has expanded a ton from being a freshman last year, (Cameron) Rollyson same thing. It’s familiar names but their roles have really increased significantly. I think tonight we showcased that we have a lot of weapons out there we can use. As long as they stay unselfish we’ll be a successful offense.”
Three defensive players had double figures in tackles, led by all-state defensive tackle Michael Thacker. The Ball State commit had 10 stops, including a sack. Rollyson and Jacobia each had 10 tackles. Rollyson had .5 tackles for loss. Garrett Ranes, last year’s leading tackler, had eight tackles.
“It’s a really unique offense,” Ralph said of Kokomo’s style of play. “It’s a hard offense to stop and deal with. I thought defensively we played pretty well for the most part. There were mistakes on both sides of the ball, we had a special teams snafu where a guy flat-out didn’t come on the field. Those things can’t happen, this is a high-level game. You can’t afford mistakes like that.
“It’s Week 1, you’re going to have issues. If you’re peaking at Week 1, there’s probably a major problem. We’d like to have been cleaner in some aspects, but at the end of the day we beat a really good football team, a well-coached football team, and it’s important to be 1-0. We’ll get on the practice field and clean stuff up and come back out next week and try again.”
Next week’s matchup, also at Kelso Stadium, will have the top-ranked 4A school against the preseason top-ranked 5A school. Decatur Central comes to New Palestine, but will likely not be in the No. 1 spot when next week’s poll comes out. The Hawks lost to Columbus North 41-15 Friday.
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New Palestine 35, Kok0mo 14
Kokomo (0-1);7;0;7;0-;14
New Palestine (1-0);7;21;0;7;-;35
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
K – Brixton Morris 1 run (Adrian Reyes kick) 4:12
NP – Jacob Davis 27 run (Jake Wells kick) :38.6
2nd Quarter
NP – Eli Wasson 29 pass from Davis (Wells kick) 11:01
NP – Josh Ranes 4 run (Wells kick) 2:42
NP – Mason Oglesby 14 pass from Davis (Wells kick) 1:49
3rd Quarter
K – Keemarion Pollard 2 run (Reyes kick) 1:56
4th Quarter
NP – Austin McMahan 99 pass from Davis (Wells kick) 5:08
