YORKTOWN — The scoreboard told one story, but New Palestine head coach Kyle Ralph foretold another with his players’ eyes wide open.
Minutes after his Class 5A second-ranked Dragons shut out Hoosier Heritage Conference foe Yorktown 35-0 on Friday night, Ralph delivered a poignant message.
“You are seven days away from being embarrassed,” Ralph barked out, referring to next week’s upcoming rivalry game with 4A No. 3 Mt. Vernon. “That rail will be painted black and gold, and it literally makes me sick to think about it!”
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryAfter missing out in Week 1 due to trace contact quarantine requirements, another week meant another ranked opponent left in the dust for the defending 5A state champion New Palestine Dragons.
However, there’s an expectation level for Ralph and his Dragons.
And, despite knocking off the 3A No. 8 Tigers (2-1, 0-1 HHC) on the road in the Dragons’ league opener, the performance was far from up to par.
“Unfortunately, our defense is our best offense right now, which is embarrassing,” Ralph said. “We’ve got to play better on that side of the ball. It’s inexcusable. I think our defense, if we hadn’t slipped and fallen, would have outscored our offense tonight, which is great for the Red Rage, but it’s embarrassingly bad for our offense.”
The Dragons’ (2-0, 1-0 HHC) offense came out crisp in the game’s opening series at Yorktown, using 1 minute, 39 seconds to move 60 yards on five plays to take a 7-0 lead.
Freshman running back Grayson Thomas broke free for an 8-yard touchdown run to cap the drive. He finished the game with 63 yards on 11 carries after rushing for 115 yards in his varsity debut last week when New Palestine defeated 3A No. 8 Brebeuf Jesuit 28-8.
On the Dragons ensuing possession, senior quarterback Lincoln Roth connected with Aiden Ewers for a 46-yard TD pass to conclude a 94-yard drive on 10 plays.
The offense put up one more touchdown in the first half when Roth found senior Blake Austin in stride for a 52-yard scoring strike with 2:46 remaining in the second quarter.
Roth completed 9-of-13 pass attempts for 180 yards, two touchdowns and rushed for 15 yards, but he also threw an interception.
Of the Dragons’ 35 points, 21 went to the offense. The Red Rage defense handled the rest, but not necessarily by design.
“Winning 35-0 is always a good thing you see, but there are times when our team doesn’t look like it wants it as bad as other teams do,” Ewers said. “The scoreboard says it, but still, we have a lot of things to fix at practice.”
Ralph emphasized the point even though his defense had four interceptions, including two returned for touchdowns and a fumble recovery by David DeGuzman on Yorktown’s opening drive in the third quarter.
“When you don’t play to your potential, you put yourself in a position to lose,” Ralph said. “It’s that simple. It doesn’t matter what sport or what game you play. If you don’t do the things you’re supposed to do when you’re supposed to do them; I don’t care if it’s chess, basketball, football, water skiing, you fail. Right now, we’re failing on multiple levels.”
The offense failed to register more than one first down in the second half, which had a running clock in accordance to the IHSAA’s mercy rule after New Palestine lead 35-0 at halftime.
The Dragons offense was forced to punt twice in the second half — three times overall — and had a turnover on downs in the second quarter at fourth-and-1 from their own 25-yard line.
“We’re always working towards being better and going undefeated in the regular season. We always want to be better,” Ewers said.
The Dragons defense was ahead of the curve.
Hunter Burks picked off Yorktown’s Blair Webster on second-and-14 and returned the interception 45 yards for a touchdown and a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter.
Bryant Nunnally had the Dragons second interception with 4:07 left in the second quarter, which setup New Palestine’s third offensive scoring series.
A pick-6 by Ewers, returned 40 yards, made the score 35-0 and increased New Palestine’s team interception count to five on the year.
Elan Roudebush’s interception off of backup quarterback Mason Moulton in the fourth quarter increased the Red Rage’s tally to six picks in two weeks.
“When we can click, we can definitely get things going,” Ewers said. “Now, it’s time to push for 3-0.”
Next week, the Dragons travel to Mt. Vernon for the annual Boundary Rail game with several streaks on the line. After Friday’s victory, New Palestine has now won 65 consecutive regular-season games and 30 straight games overall since 2018.
New Palestine defeated Yorktown for an eighth straight time. The Dragons haven’t lost an HHC games since Oct. 12, 2012, marking 49 wins in a row.
“There’s a lot up for grabs in that game (next week), and if we play like we did tonight, the things we take a lot of pride in, the helmet and the rail, our conference, our conference championship; all of those things you might as well throw them out the window,” Ralph said. “I don’t know if it’s a lack of focus or intensity, poor coaching on my part, I don’t know, but I do know we’re not the football team we should be right now.”
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NEW PALESTINE 35, YORKTOWN 0
NP (2-0, 1-0 HHC);14;21;0;0;-;35
YK (2-1, 0-1 HHC);0;0;0;0;-;0
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
NP – Grayson Thomas 8 yd run (Brendan Tanksley kick), 10:16
NP – Aiden Ewers 46 yd pass from Lincoln Roth (Tanksley kick), 3:08
2nd Quarter
NP – Hunter Burks 45 yd INT return (Tanksley kick), 11:47
NP – Blake Austin 52 yd pass from Roth (Tanksley kick), 2:46
NP – Ewers 40 yd INT return (Tanksley kick), 1:43
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