NEW PALESTINE — Riding the momentum from an emotional semifinal win last week against Zionsville, New Palestine needed little time to wrap up a sectional title Friday.
The Class 5A No. 1 Dragons (11-0) jumped on visiting Anderson (3-8) immediately, with a 50-yard touchdown run from Charlie Spegal on the host’s third play from scrimmage. Spegal capped a 95-yard Dragons drive later in the quarter with a 7-yard TD run, putting him at 150 yards in the first quarter.
Spegal never slowed down, breaking another school record in the process. The Dragons defense had a monster of a game, dominating Anderson in a shutout.
New Palestine quickly put the game out of reach, decisively rolling into next week’s regional with a 78-0 win for the sectional title.
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“That trophy is something we talked about this week, as far as what your legacy in going to be here,” New Palestine coach Kyle Ralph said. “This team will be a sectional champion forever, and that’s really important to the kids, the program, the community. We take a lot of pride in wanting to make this school proud of us, make this community proud of us. To get a sectional championship after two years of falling short is incredibly special and important.”
Spegal had another huge game for the Dragons, rushing 23 times for 364 yards and seven touchdowns. He added 54 receiving yards and a receiving TD, breaking the New Palestine school record — for the second time this season — with eight total TDs.
The yardage puts Spegal over 7,000 yards in his career and in ninth all time in Indiana history with at least one more game guaranteed in his junior year. He is now tied for 10th on the state career scoring list and has moved to fourth place on the single-season scoring list.
As a team, the Dragons rushed for over 500 yards in the game, while holding Anderson well into the negatives. New Palestine finished just shy of 700 total yards of offense for the game.
“We went against a defense that they had not shown the whole season,” Ralph said. “Credit to those guys up front on the offensive line. As the blocking scheme settled in, you saw us start ripping off those big chunks of yards, having those huge gainers. Once we got going, it was a really nice night for us offensively.”
Anderson tried to connect on the deep throw early, but each time quarterback Xander Stokes dropped back to look for the long pass, the Dragons defense was in his face.
That quickly became a theme.
New Palestine came after Stokes relentlessly, sacking him eight times and hurrying or hitting him repeatedly. Kyle King seemed to spend most of the game in Stokes’ face, sacking him three times to put him at 14 sacks for the season.
“The first half we started out slow, but we started getting those plays where it opened up, linebackers go outside and let me through and I got my sacks,” King said. “It was a good team performance on D.”
Austin Keele and Aven Jones were in on a sack together. Keele got a sack of his own after King chased Stokes right back into him. Noah Mack added a pair of sacks in the third quarter and C.J. Faubion got the team’s final sack in the fourth frame.
The Dragons defense punctuated a dominant first half with a touchdown of its own, when Luke Ely pounced on a fumbled punt attempt in the end zone to put the hosts up 42 points.
The defense added a safety early in the second half and an interception when Grant Wiegand picked off Stokes in the fourth quarter.
“We had a lot of really great pressures tonight that we had designed for their offense,” Ralph said. “We didn’t think it would be five-wide all night long. Credit to our guys on defense who did such an exceptional job slowing them down.”
The win gives New Palestine its 10th sectional championship in school history. It is the fourth sectional title in Ralph’s six years and the team’s first since the 2015 season.
“It feels good, but we’ve got to keep moving on,” King said of the sectional title. “We’ve got bigger things to accomplish.”
The path to the ultimate goal continues in next week’s regional, a 7 p.m. game at Harrison, who beat Kokomo 19-16 on Friday.
“They’re very tough kids, very hard-nosed kids,” Ralph said of Harrison. “They play outstanding defense. I know they’ve got three of the top sack guys in 5A, which is absolutely unreal coming out of the same team. It’s going to be a great challenge for us.
"That’s what it’s all about. It’s regional championship football.”
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Friday’s Class 5A results
No. 3 Michigan City X, LaPorte X
Concord 17, Elkhart Central 14
Harrison 19, Kokomo 16
No. 1 New Palestine 78, Anderson 0
No. 2 Decatur Central 21, No. 6 Cathedral 14
No. 10 Bloomington South 28, No. 8 Martinsville 25 (2OT)
No. 4 Columbus East 51, No. 9 Bedford North Lawrence 14
Castle 55, Terre Haute South 34
Next week’s regional games
New Palestine at Harrison, 7 p.m.
Concord at Michigan City, 7 p.m.
Bloomington South at Decatur Central, 7 p.m.
Castle at Columbus East, 7 p.m.
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