NEW PALESTINE — The history isn’t long but the few high school football battles between New Palestine and Decatur Central have been memorable.
Friday night’s matchup at Kelso Stadium looked to be on the way to continuing that stretch of entertaining football games.
Class 4A No. 1 New Palestine and Class 5A No. 6 Decatur Central — the preseason No. 1 in 5A before losing its Week 1 opener — were tied 21-21 at halftime.
Unfortunately for the players, coaches and football fans, that’s how the game ended.
Right before the start of the third quarter, lightning in the area forced a delay. The delay went for nearly three hours until a little before 11 p.m. officials from both schools decided to complete the game Saturday morning at 1o a.m.
A couple of hours prior to Saturday’s resumption, and with more dangerous weather forecast for the area, it was decided to cancel the remaining two quarters and declare the game a no contest, though statistics for both teams will be counted.
“There was some lightning from pretty far away but it was the right thing for the officials to call and postpone it,” New Palestine coach Kyle Ralph said of Friday’s initial decision. “A long, long delay like that … we wanted to play. The goal was try to get the game in Friday night … But when it got to be that late and the storm wasn’t going to relent, we had to postpone it.
“Today, with another storm coming through and a couple of other factors, we just both agreed to cancel, which a lot of other schools have done too.”
Numerous games across the state were postponed or canceled. Mt. Vernon’s game at Franklin was stopped in the fourth quarter Friday and was able to resume Saturday. Greenfield-Central’s Friday night home opener was unable to get through one quarter before being stopped. The Cougars were up 35-0 against Greensburg with 10 seconds left in the opening quarter. The game was declared final and a win for G-C.
New Palestine and Decatur Central came in 2-2 in their all-time series, but the fifth meeting belonged to, and became memorable because of, Mother Nature.
“The kids came in [Saturday morning] expecting to play a game, but I think it was the right thing,” Ralph said. “The weather [near the time of scheduled resumption] we would have been delayed again. The rain is fine, but there’s thunder and lightning in the area.
“Not the most desirable decision but sadly, for the circumstances, probably the right one and what a lot of other people are seeming to do today.”
On Friday, New Palestine had a forgettable first quarter. Its first series ended in a blocked field and the second was stopped by an interception.
The Dragons only trailed 7-0 going into the second quarter and capped off a drive that had started on their own 20 late in the first quarter with a 1-yard touchdown run by Josh Ranes.
Decatur’s next drive ended in a missed 52-yard field goal by Ashton Vogel. The Dragons had a three-and-out series, but the snap to Dragon punter Jake Wells was poor and Wells had to fall on the ball at the New Pal 5.
Decatur Central quickly scored on a 5-yard pass play from Bo Polston to N’po Dodo to lead 14-7 with 8:24 to go until halftime.
New Palestine quickly answered when Ranes broke free up the middle for an 83-yard game-tying touchdown run.
The Dragons followed with a squib/onside kick, recovered by Brody Meyer.
They took the lead on a fourth-down pass play from the DC 22. Quarterback Jacob Davis threw to Cameron Rollyson, who grabbed the precisely-placed pass over a Hawks defensive back.
Polston and Dodo connected again with 1:22 left until halftime to tie the game. The Dragons got the ball back and got to the Hawks 31, but Davis was sacked on the final play of the half.
“We did not play a very good game. The first half was full of a lot of errors on our part,” Ralph said. “We found some ways to keep it at a tie score, but we really did not play very well. We got in and got some stuff adjusted during halftime and felt pretty good about the adjustments we made and the things we were going to come out and do.
“We wanted to come out and play a lot better and a lot cleaner football.”
A year ago at DC, the Hawks won a wild 43-42 contest. New Palestine led 42-33 with 5:50 remaining, but DC rallied and finished off the win with a touchdown with just 42 seconds remaining.
In 2022, it was billed as a battle of the Class 4A No. 1 Dragons against the Class 5A No. 2 Hawks. It was not a battle at all. In the lone lopsided game of the series, the Dragons won 49-0 at Kelso Stadium.
In 2021, at DC, the Hawks prevailed 31-29. The Dragons led 14-3 early before the Hawks scored 28 straight points.
New Palestine battled back before having a last-second 38-yard field goal deflected and fall short of giving the Dragons the win.
The first meeting came in the 2018 Class 5A state championship game. The Dragons completed a 14-0 state title season with a 28-14 win over the Hawks at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The Dragons begin defense of their Hoosier Heritage Conference title Friday with the first of three straight road conference games at Yorktown (2-0).
–
New Palestine 21, Decatur Central 21
Decatur Central (0-1);7;14;-;21
New Palestine (1-0);0;21;-;21
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
DC – Bo Polston 12 run (Ashton Vogel kick), 2:26
2nd Quarter
NP – Josh Ranes 1 run (Jake Wells kick) 11:50
DC – N’Po Dodo 5 pass from Polston (Vogel kick) 8:24
NP – Ranes 83 run (Wells kick) 8:10
NP – Cameron Rollyson 22 pass from Jacob Davis (Wells kick) 5:25
DC – Dodo 9 pass from Polston (Vogel kick) 1:22
