SHELBYVILLE — New Palestine walked off the Shelbyville football field on Friday night with its 12th straight win over the Golden Bears, its 24th straight Hoosier Heritage Conference win and a victory that kept its perfect season alive.
Yet, there was little to be happy about.
In a 35-0 win, the Class 4A No. 1 Dragons (6-0, 5-0) had unforced mistakes, bad penalties and came out flat, all things head coach Kyle Ralph knows need to get corrected as the regular season comes to a close.
“We played poorly and [Shelbyville] played well. They did a great job. It’s a great staff, and you can see the improvement and their effort is there. They’re rebuilding right now, but when we come out flat, unenthusiastic and not interested, and miss opportunities left and right, and they play well, that’s what happens. It’s a lesson for our kids to learn because we got it handed to us pretty good,” Ralph said.
“I don’t want to have this happen, but I’d rather have this lesson happen now than in three weeks when you go home because you played poorly. In the big picture, this is probably something that we needed to realize that we’re not as good as we think we are.”
For the fifth straight game, New Palestine forced a running clock, but it didn’t come until there was 7:25 remaining.
And for three quarters, the Golden Bears gave the Dragons a scare.
On the opening drive of the second half, a pass interference on the New Palestine defense and a block in the back on an interception allowed Shelbyville to advance the ball inside the red zone.
With only a 14-0 lead, the Dragons defense – whose penalties caused the Shelbyville scoring chance — stood strong when it mattered most.
A tackle for loss on third down at the 15-yard line forced a fourth-and-long, and a knocked-down pass by the Dragons secondary on the next play stopped the scoring threat.
The unforced mistakes continued on the next possession. A fumble near midfield by New Palestine gave the ball back to the Golden Bears with good field position, and again, the defense made a stop.
A sack by Brock Brownfield for a loss of seven yards on third down forced Shelbyville to punt.
On the night, the Dragons defense held the Shelbyville to 43 total yards.
“Our defense has played well, but the amount of penalties that we’re getting is crazy and that has to stop. We had at least 70 yards of penalties tonight on defense and that is just unacceptable,” Ralph said. “You just give life back into their drives, but we did have some backbone there and kept them out of the end zone which was great to see.”
Two plays later, running back Josh Ranes gave New Palestine a little bit of breathing room.
After getting only four carries for 22 yards in the first half, on his third attempt of the second half, Ranes broke off a 70-yard touchdown run to make it a three-score game.
Ranes added an 11-yard touchdown near the end of the quarter to finish the night with 139 yards and two scores, and Caden Jacobia ran in his second score of the night in the fourth to make it 35-0.
“The way we had been playing, nothing was safe. Three scores at that point in the game probably should feel pretty good, but it didn’t,” Ralph said. “Even the final result didn’t feel good. When you’re supposed to be the No. 1 team in the state, you don’t play the way that we played.”
The Dragons, who had thrived offensively in the first half of games this season, had issues over the opening 24 minutes.
On five first-half possessions, they scored twice, punted twice and turned the ball over on downs in the red zone in the closing seconds of the half.
“Just total lapses, missed opportunities, dropped footballs, poor reads, turning the wrong way on handoffs. It doesn’t matter who you play, when you do those things you can’t be successful,” Ralph said. “Football is not that hard of a game. When you block well, tackle well and play a bit of pitch and catch, you usually win a lot. When you don’t do those things, you look really bad. Tonight, we looked really bad.”
The opening play of the game nearly went for a 56-yard touchdown, but a deep pass from quarterback Jacob Davis went through the hands of Austin McMahan. Three plays later, the Dragons were punting the ball to the Golden Bears.
After a quick three-and-out by Shelbyville, the Dragons opened the scoring on a 13-yard pass from Davis to Garrett Ranes with 3:43 to go in the opening period.
A 31-yard pass from Shelbyville quarterback Tyler Gwinnup to Grantland Fitzgerald to open the second quarter moved the ball deep into New Palestine territory, but after a few penalties backed the Golden Bears up, Garrett Ranes broke into the backfield and denied the ball carrier on fourth down to end the threat.
Following the turnover on downs, New Palestine was facing a third-and-nine and a potential third punt of the half, but Davis connected with McMahan on a deep ball for a 49-yard gain.
The deep pass set up Jacobia for an 8-yard touchdown run to push the lead to 14-0.
The Dragons travel to New Castle next Friday with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.
–
New Palestine 35, Shelbyville 0
New Palestine (6-0, 5-0);7;7;14;7; —;35
Shelbyville (1-6, 0-5);0;0;0;0; —;0
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
NP — Garrett Ranes 12 pass from Jacob Davis (Jake Wells kick), 3:43
2nd Quarter
NP — Caden Jacobia 8 run (Wells kick), 6:39
3rd Quarter
NP — Josh Ranes 70 run (Wells kick), 3:43
NP — Josh Ranes 11 run (Wells kick), :39
4th Quarter
NP — Jacobia 3 run (Wells kick), 7:25
