For the Daily Reporter
NEW CASTLE — New Palestine’s Charlie Spegal broke into not one, but two state Top 25 lists during the Dragon’s 56-14 victory against New Castle on Friday.
Spegal ran his way onto the Top 25 career rushing list as well as the Top 25 career scoring list in Indiana. And he’s very close to another Top 25 list as well.
One of his four rushing touchdowns on the night got him the yards to break the 6,000-career rushing mark and place him as 25th in state history. Overall, he finished with 261 yards, which solidifies him for the week at No. 22 on the list with 6,114 yards, just behind a 2001 record of 6,318 yards which he will be gunning for next week.
With his 24 points scored, he also became No. 25 on the career scoring list. He had scored 230 points total this year and 300 in his freshman and sophomore year at Delta. He now has a total of 554 points, just behind a 2004 record of 556.
And this is just the start. He is 12 points outside of the Top 25 single-season scoring list. He is also about 900 yards away from the single-season rushing list to top it off.
“I like to see the hard work pay off, but nothing is a finished product so I still gotta keep going,” Spegal said after Friday’s game.
Spegal said his goal on the field is to help his teammates win.
“That’s all that matters,” he said.
New Palestine head coach Kyle Ralph said there’s a few reasons Spegal stands out.
“He runs at good pad level with good leverage,” Ralph said. “He keeps his legs pumping. You’re forced into tackling him because he continues to drive his legs so much through his runs, and that’s a big deal. That’s what makes for a great running back is those extra tough yards.”
With the win, New Palestine clinched at least a share of the Hoosier Heritage Conference title. They will face Delta next week to decide whether New Palestine gets their 11th HHC title solo or shared.
Spegal, along with quarterback Zach Neligh, made a powerful duo against New Castle. Neligh scored three of the Dragons’ other touchdowns.
“Both those guys ran the ball well tonight,” Ralph said. “The good thing about Zach being such an efficient runner is that you can’t just focus on Charlie running the football, which is what they tried to do tonight.”
It didn’t take long for New Palestine to do what they do best — put points on the scoreboard. The team has averaged 63 points per game this year, helping them to an undefeated 8-0 record and 6-0 in the conference.
Neligh ran for a touchdown just over a minute after the game started. Spegal followed suit after four minutes.
Out of Spegal’s 261 yards on the night, 175 of them came during the first half.
“We had another good night from him,” Ralph said. “Good, hard, physical runs and protecting the football. The guys up front opened up some nice holes for him to be able to get through.”
Colby Jenkins also broke through for a 55-yard touchdown run to bring the scoring total to eight touchdowns.
On defense, New Palestine gave up two touchdowns, mainly due to New Castle’s Luke Bumbalough, who kept a 20-play drive going in the third and fourth quarter for over 10 minutes. The Trojans had three fourth-down conversions.
The other touchdown was a pick-six during the third quarter by Trojan Nicholas Greiser.
“We’re not done yet,” Ralph said. “We have a lot to work on. Tonight was disappointing in a lot of different respects. We’ve got one more game in the regular season against Delta and we want to make sure we do the job and finish with an undefeated regular season.”
The team has their goal set for next week. And so does Spegal.
“For me, I just want to improve on my weaknesses, get better and be the best player I can be,” Spegal said. “And for the team, we’re gonna try to get out there and get a win.”
