NEW PALESTINE — What makes the Dragons defense so good?
That depends on who you ask, really.
The statistics are indisputable — this is an extremely good group. They’ve allowed just 9.0 points per game, tops in Class 5A and eighth in the state. They allow just 185 yards per game. Their 35 sacks lead 5A, and New Palestine’s 14 interceptions are second in its class.
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Some fans or casual observers might look at the individual statistics and point to specific players. The Dragons don’t have any currently committed Division 1 talent on the defense, though, unlike some of their opponents this season, including today’s semistate opponent, Michigan City.
More on that later.
Is it the coaching? New Palestine has arguably one of the best coaching staffs in Indiana. That matters a lot, but that’s still not the full answer.
It isn’t their size. The Dragons are smaller than many of the teams they go against, both in literal size and roster size.
Some might say it must be athleticism, the sheer speed of the players on the defense. That’s part of the equation, sure. Conditioning plays a part, too.
Ask their coach, and he’ll point to the hard work they put in on the practice field and the weight room. That plays a big role.
The bottom line is that it’s a simple yet complicated answer. Time and time again, they take the field and do their jobs at an extremely high level.
“We’re not absolutely incredible,” New Palestine coach Kyle Ralph said. “We have no freak-shows. Our kids just do their job consistently the best. That’s what wins football games. We’re going to need our finest performance of the year on Saturday for sure.”
Keys to success
Now we have a new question to answer. Just how do the Dragons compete and succeed at such a high level so regularly?
When you ask the players themselves, the answer quickly starts to form.
This is a unit that takes the field and plays as one every day. They play for one another and push one another.
Their chemistry is off the charts.
“Our team chemistry is so good together. We know that each of us is going to have each other’s back. We know we play as a unit and interlock,” junior offensive and defensive lineman Kyle King said. “We don’t try to stand out. We’re all working together at the same time to compete and do what we’ve gotta do. If one of us takes a play off, it screws the whole team up.”
“If one guy tries to do his own thing or be a hero out there, the whole defense will fall apart,” junior defensive back Maxen Hook said. “I think what our defense does the best is we don’t have certain superstars that make our defense insane. All of us 11 guys play together as one unit. That’s why we can stop all these good offenses.”
Make no mistake about it, the Dragons have good players on this defense. While it’s a group effort, there are some notable standouts.
King leads the state in quarterback sacks, with 17. He has 24.5 tackles for a loss among his 62 tackles.
Hook has 109 tackles, leading the team, with 12 for a loss and four sacks. Aven Jones has 77 tackles, with 10 for a loss and four sacks.
Brody Luker has four interceptions. Ryker Large has three.
Pick any starter — or even some backups — on the defense, and you can find a standout performance or two. The New Palestine defense has 11 starters that could have a huge game any given week.
“It’s just being able to trust,” Hook said. “You can look at any guy, any way you turn your head, you can trust that guy to do his job. When that happens, any guy can have a big night. That’s what happens a lot. Everybody can go off one night, and you don’t really know who it’s going to be.”
In Week 2 against Center Grove it was Hook, with 18 tackles and a sack. He was all over the field, dominating the game defensively.
In a huge conference matchup against Pendleton Heights, it was King, who had three big sacks. In a sectional rematch against Zionsville it was a big interception from Luker and big performances from Hook, Jones, Luke Ely and Jacob Hockett, who all had at least 10 tackles.
Last week against Harrison it was Jones, who set a personal-best with 17 tackles. King played a big role again, with a pair of back-to-back sacks on a crucial second-half drive.
Despite his dominant season individually, King praises his teammates for getting him to that point.
“It’s mainly a group effort. When my linebacker blitzes, it usually opens up my hole because their guard is focusing on that ‘backer,” he said. “I just have that extra speed to get back there, helps me make plays when I’ve got all my guys working with me.”
That goes back to the team chemistry and playing together as a unit. King has been in the right place at the right time countless times this season, partly from sheer individual will and skill but partly from the team playing its assignments perfectly around him.
He relies on his teammates to be where they are supposed to be. He goes and does his own job from there.
That’s the mindset of the entire defense.
“We love each other. We always rely on each other, not trying to beat down each other if we make a mistake,” Jones, a junior linebacker, said. “We know if we make a mistake, everyone knows it’s our fault. We know ourselves. We’re going to get back to it and get our job done the next play.”
Accountability is huge for the Dragons. Everyone knows their roles and assignments. When someone makes a mistake or misses a responsibility, you can usually count on another Dragon defender to be there to help mitigate the damage.
That hasn’t happened a whole lot this season, as evidenced by the minuscule amount of points scored against the defense this season.
“Our 11 do a really good job as a whole together and that’s really important in a game like this is to not have breakdowns, to not have critical errors or mental mistakes,” Ralph said. “If something were to happen, someone’s got to cover for that. Our kids have done a good job this year of not having those moments. They’ve been very few and far between.”
Battle-tested
The Dragons were thrown into the fire this year on defense.
They have faced what seems like a totally different offensive style every week. They’ve learned and grown from those experiences.
New Palestine started the season with a pair of huge tests, and the defense stepped up and made a statement immediately. First was 2017 state runner-up Kokomo.
The Dragons shut them out.
Then was Class 6A powerhouse Center Grove, who played in a semistate game Friday night against the state’s top team, Warren Central.
The Dragons shut them down, holding the Trojans to single digits in an eye-opening 31-9 win.
All season, the New Palestine defense rose to the occasion, holding potent offenses to few points and paltry yardage. After all the tests the regular season provided, the postseason has added another layer of difficulty that the Dragons have responded well to.
The defense is used to being on the field for a good portion of the game, as New Palestine’s offense regularly scores in quick bursts, with short drives and explosive plays.
“We can lean on them,” Jones said of the offense. “We hope that they can lean on us.”
Last week’s regional victory against Harrison showed the offense that they most certainly can.
That game started with a 23-play drive from the hosts that took up over a quarter of the game. The Dragons defense was on the field for almost 36 minutes of the 48-minute game, a contest that started with a rare mental mistake on third-and-long that helped the hosts extend the drive.
“They had to fight through that, get gritty through that,” Ralph said. “I tell our guys all the time, I’m not going to call a timeout to save you in those scenarios. It’s too early in the game to call timeout to just yell at people essentially to do their job better. They all know to do their job better.”
That’s when the defense settled down and got focused. Harrison scored on the opening drive but never found the end zone again.
The New Palestine defense got better as the game wore on, becoming more and more dominant and keeping the Raiders off the board, paramount to success in a low-scoring game heading into the fourth quarter.
If people didn’t already know it, the performance against Harrison provided two more answers to the question of what makes the Dragons defense so good.
A high level of conditioning was evident, as was their football IQ.
“It’s a credit to our kids. As the game wore on, they got better, they played better, they didn’t make those mistakes, they adjusted,” Ralph said. “They’re very coachable and they’re very smart. They’re in great shape. That game wore on and those guys were on the field forever, and they did not wear down. We continued to be able to push forward on offense and defense, and that’s why we won that game.”
11 strong
The stage is set for what could be an incredible semistate showdown.
The top team in Class 5A, New Palestine, hosts the No. 3 Michigan City Wolves, who are right behind the Dragons in offensive and defensive prowess.
Their only losses are to one of Indiana’s best Class 6A teams, Valparaiso, and one of Illinois’ best teams, Homewood-Flossmoor. They lost those games by a combined 10 points.
Michigan City has a roster stacked with talent. They are big and play physical. They have Division 1 players, including a standout linebacker on the defensive side of the ball.
That’s a familiar refrain for a Dragons team used to being undersized and supposedly undermanned.
“You don’t get to this point by accident. You’re here because you’re really good. They are no exception to that,” Ralph said. “They are supremely talented and athletic, and they play with a lot of confidence and swagger, and again, rightfully so. They’ve been hot. They haven’t lost since Week 4. It’s an incredible challenge.”
Today is the fourth time New Palestine will play in a semistate game in Ralph’s six years as coach, an incredible mark and a testament to the program. They won their last two semistate contests, in 2014 and 2015, with a state title win in 2014.
To get back to the state finals for the third time since 2013, the Dragons defense will be in the spotlight as it tries to slow a strong Michigan City attack.
“If one of the two defenses really shines on Saturday, that team’s going to win. It’s just that simple,” Ralph said. “Whichever defense rises to the occasion in my opinion is going to be the one who wins this game. Both offenses are so accustomed honestly to being able to churn out points and yards. It will be interesting to see how either one of the two handles the adversity that may hit.”
Some of the current Dragons were on the 2015 team that won the semistate, but only a few saw game time.
This will be a new experience for most of the Dragons, but it’s one they’ve been working toward all off-season and during the season.
They are within reach of their end goal.
“I think we all know how big this game is going to be,” King said. “We’ve got a community that’s been behind us the whole year, and they’re going to be here. I feel like we’ve just all got to do our role we’ve been practicing all year. Everybody’s gotta fill their gaps, no blown containment. They have a fast quarterback and a great running back, really big up front. We’ve got to stand those guys up. No extra yards.”
Like they’ve done 12 times this season, the Dragons will count on one another to get the job done tonight.
The defense will take the field 11 strong, and they will play as one.
“We just gotta stop ‘em, obviously. We’ve got to play the same defense we’ve been playing all year,” Hook said. “Go out there, make plays, adapt to what they’re going to do. They’re going to have big plays — we’re going to have to play through it and rely on what we’ve been doing all year, and that’s playing as a team.”
The Dragons have earned another opportunity to show just how good they are. The offense will be tested by Michigan City’s defense, just as the Wolves offense will be by the Dragons defense.
If all goes well for the hosts, the Wolves will find out first-hand the answer to the big question.
What makes the Dragons defense so good?
Pretty much everything.
“We’ve seen so many things this year, and our kids have responded really well to all of those things on the whole,” Ralph said. “We certainly have our moments here and there of disappointing plays, but we also have on the opposite side of the spectrum, some of those moments of, ‘Wow. That’s as good as has ever been done here.’
“This week, we just need more of those ‘that’s as good as has ever been done here’ type moments.”