PENDLETON — Halfway through Friday night’s game, the New Palestine Dragons’ winning streak and first place in the Hoosier Heritage Conference was in the balance.
Minutes later, it wasn’t.
The Dragons scored 15 points in the opening minutes of the third quarter to turn a six-point lead into a three-touchdown edge, taking control in a 42-21 victory at Pendleton Heights.
The victory made the Dragons the fifth team in state history to win 50 consecutive regular-season games.
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Leading 13-7, the Dragons took the second-half kickoff and went 80 yards in seven plays, keyed by Zach Neligh’s 42-yard scamper down the left sideline. It set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Charlie Spegal. On the first play of the Arabians’ ensuing possession, New Palestine forced and recovered a fumble, setting up another short field and a TD run by Neligh. A two-point conversion extended the lead to 28-7 with 7:43 to go in the third quarter.
“That was a great start to the second half,” New Palestine coach Kyle Ralph said. "We told the guys at halftime, ‘this is the type of game you love to be in. You love to be in a championship-caliber game.’ It’s tight at the half, we’ve got to come out and play clean ball or you face the possibility of losing. We came out and just had a tremendous drive, force a fumble and put that ball right back in the end zone. Now the pressure is on them a little bit and they’ve got to come out of their initial gameplan of slowing things down and not trying to go for riskier plays.”
Spegal ran for 259 yards and four touchdowns on 39 carries, giving him 1,088 yards for the year. Neligh ran for 134 yards and a score and also threw for 70 yards and a touchdown. It marked the first time in 11 games the Dragons had two 100-yard rushers in a contest.
New Palestine extended the lead to 35-7 on a 50-yard TD run by Spegal early in the fourth quarter in which he found a hole, cut right and outran the Arabians to the pylon to put the game away. Pendleton Heights answered, but Spegal and Neligh carried the load on a mammoth six-minute touchdown drive that put an exclamation point on the victory.
Yards between the tackles were tough to get, but the Dragons had four first downs on the final drive and kept grinding out four and five-yard carries to move the chains.
“It was great to see our guys really take over in a physical game tonight,” Ralph said. “Their kids tackled tremendously well tonight. We were a shoestring tackle away from seven or eight other massive runs, but they did a great job putting us on the ground. As the game wears on, that’s where the strength in the weight room, our offensive line, the work those kids put in, Charlie and Zach continuing to pound downhill, was huge for us.
“When the big boys up front are rolling and we’re pushing the pile and pushing the line, we’re just going to keep doing it. I was very proud of that. Those guys up front had a tough job tonight and they answered the call.”
Pendleton Heights tried to slow the game down in the opening half, taking more than six and a half minutes on the opening possession before Ryker Large picked off a pass to end the drive. The Arabians’ slow tempo — often running the play clock down to one or two seconds on each play — shortened the game and limited possessions. New Palestine scored on two of its three first-half possessions — a 40-yard TD from Neligh to Colby Jenkins on the first drive, followed by an 11-play march that ended in an eight-yard TD by Spegal — to take a 13-0 lead.
Pendleton Heights answered with a long march and the first of Christian Conkling’s three touchdown passes to cut the edge to 13-7, where it stood at halftime.
Conkling threw for 297 yards — 102 and two scores to Anakin Allison. He was also sacked five times. New Palestine held Pendleton Heights’ standout receiver Eli Pancol in check, as the Duke recruit had three catches for 35 yards.
New Palestine made the most of its possessions, scoring six of the eight times it had the football.
“Good teams are going to make you make mistakes here and there,” Ralph said. “You’re not going to put up an absolutely dominant performance against a good team and so you’ve got to be efficient. Overall, we were pretty efficient tonight with the exception of one drive where I certainly would like to have four of those plays back.”
Friday’s victory concluded a three-game roadtrip for the Dragons. They return home to Kelso Stadium next Friday to face Greenfield-Central in their homecoming game.
