PENDLETON — At times they were as dominant as they’ve been all season long, and at other times, they looked vulnerable. In the end, it was another running-clock conference win for New Palestine.
The Dragons traveled to Pendleton on Friday night for a Hoosier Heritage Conference meeting with Pendleton Heights and walked off John Broughton Field with a 56-17 win.
With the victory, New Palestine, ranked No. 1 in the Class 4A poll, moved to 4-0 on the season and 3-0 in the HHC.
They’ve won 22 straight conference games and have won 13 in a row against the Arabians.
“They’re a great team. They’re well-coached and they always play us really well. [Pendleton Heights] Coach [Jed] Richman and I are good friends, and he does an outstanding job. I think they’re one of the most well-coached, fundamental teams that you’re going to find,” New Palestine head coach Kyle Ralph said. “When teams don’t beat themselves, you have to beat them, and that makes football hard. I’m really proud of our guys for beating a good football team.”
As they’ve done in every game of conference play, the Dragons offense got off to a red-hot start.
For the second straight week, the New Palestine offense scored on its first play from scrimmage.
Josh Ranes took the opening handoff, broke a few tackles, and outran the Pendleton Heights secondary for a 75-yard touchdown and Jake Wells added the extra point for an early 7-0 lead. The touchdown was the Dragons seventh on the season from beyond midfield.
After a Pendleton Heights field goal on their second possession, the New Palestine offense went back to work and scored the next three touchdowns of the game.
Later in the first quarter, quarterback Jacob Davis danced around the backfield and extended a broken play with a 36-yard run down to the 3-yard line to set up Ranes for his second touchdown of the night.
Early in the second quarter, Davis used his arm to connect with Austin McMahan on a 49-yard touchdown pass for a 21-3 lead, and after forcing the Arabians third punt of the night, Davis added a touchdown on the ground with an 8-yard run.
For the first time all night, Pendleton Heights answered the Dragons score.
A one-handed over-the-shoulder 34-yard catch on fourth down by Cooper Sims set up Colton Frank to find Jacob Rowley on the next play for a 23-yard touchdown strike with just under two minutes to go in the half.
A missed field goal by the Dragons as time expired sent the teams into the locker room with New Palestine ahead 28-10.
To open the second half, freshman kicker/linebacker Evan Walker made one of the biggest plays of the night.
A one-on-one open-field tackle by Walker on Keaton Jones at midfield prevented an Arabians kickoff return to start the half. Three plays later, the Arabians were punting the ball back to the Dragons. Michael Thacker stuffed Jones at the line, Garrett Ranes sacked Frank and the secondary forced an incompletion to get the ball back to the offense.
“That was huge because otherwise we’re in trouble there. The game goes from two and a half scores to one and a half on the opening kickoff and then we’re in an absolute dogfight at that point,” Ralph said. “I’m really glad we had a kid that’s a good linebacker back there kicking because that was a massive tackle.”
Garrett Ranes, who had the sack the drive before, took a forward pitch from Davis 34 yards for the score on the next possession to put the Dragons back ahead by 25.
Again, the Arabians wouldn’t go away.
Helped out by a pair of New Palestine penalties, the Arabians marched downfield and answered the touchdown in just over two minutes. A 30-yard pass from Frank to Rowley moved the ball inside the New Pal 5, and Jones punched in the short score.
The pair of penalties were two of 13 against the Dragons on the night for a total of 135 yards.
“The amount of penalties was absolutely ludicrous. Those things have to get cleaned up. You don’t overcome things like that very often, but we found ways to be explosive,” Ralph said. “We’re taking steps in the right direction, but we’re by no means a great football team yet. We’re moving towards being better, and that’s what is important right now in this part of the season.”
To close things out, the Dragons leaned on the run game that had been dominant all night long, but with a new, but familiar face in the backfield.
Gavin Neal, last year’s starting quarterback, who had missed all of this season so far due to a knee injury, entered the game at running back and put the exclamation point on a near-perfect game from the Dragons rushing attack.
In the final quarter, Neal ran the ball eight times for 110 yards and two touchdowns. His first score came from 38 yards out and he capped off the scoring with a 2-yard run.
His 110 yards added to what was already a massive total on the ground for the Dragons.
Ranes, the starting running back, carried the ball 22 times for 269 yards and three touchdowns, and Davis ran for 71 yards and a score. In total, the Dragons ran for 469 yards.
Davis added 168 yards passing and two scores, and Austin McMahan caught five passes for 83 yards and a touchdown.
Defensively, the Dragons limited a Pendleton Heights offense that was averaging 35 points per game to half that total and held Jones – who was averaging 146 yards per game rushing – to 30 yards on 13 carries. Caden and Conner Jacobia each had interceptions and the Dragons special teams blocked a punt.
“My general philosophy is that if you can’t stop the run, you’re not going to win a lot of games. With as good as Jones is and as good as their offensive line is, if he runs for what he normally does, you’re not going to be able to beat them and they’re going to control the clock,” Ralph said. “I thought our guys on the interior did a really nice job tonight.”
The Dragons host No. 4 Greenfield-Central next Friday at 7 p.m.
–
New Palestine 56, Pendleton Heights 17
New Palestine (4-0, 3-0);14;14;14;14; —;56
Pendleton Heights (2-3, 1-2);3;7;7;0; —;17
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
NP – Josh Ranes 75 run (Jake Wells kick), 11:41
PH – Wyatt DeBertrand 40 FG, 6:45
NP – Josh Ranes 3 run (Wells kick), 4:49
2nd Quarter
NP – Austin McMahan 49 pass from Jacob Davis (Wells kick), 8:40
NP – Davis 8 run (Wells kick), 4:15
PH – Jacob Rowley 23 pass from Colton Frank (DeBertrand kick), 1:42
3rd Quarter
NP – Garrett Ranes 34 pass from Davis (Wells kick), 9:18
PH – Keaton Jones 4 run (DeBertrand kick), 7:04
NP – Josh Ranes 11 run (Wells kick), 1:47
4th Quarter
NP – Gavin Neal 38 run (Wells kick), 8:38
NP – Neal 2 run (Wells kick), 4:06
