NEW PALESTINE — All it took was two carries.
Charlie Spegal took the handoff from Lincoln Roth on the third play of the game and rumbled to the right, powering through tackles and gaining 10 yards.
Just like that, history was made. With that run, Spegal became Indiana’s all-time leading rusher, passing the 2013 mark of Elwood’s Sammy Mireles, who was in attendance to pass the torch to Spegal.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallerySpegal and the Dragons weren’t done, though. The senior ran for 184 yards and four touchdowns on 20 carries, and Class 5A No. 1 New Palestine walloped 3A No. 10 Yorktown on Friday, 55-19, to improve to 3-0 on the season and pick up their first Hoosier Heritage Conference win.
“It was pretty good to have it done and get it over with,” Spegal said of breaking the record moments after the game started. “Honestly I wasn’t thinking too much about it. I was thinking about going out there and getting a win with my team. That (the record) came second.
“It means a lot, because I put in a bunch of hard work for it and worked my butt off for it. It means a lot to the team, too, because they helped me with blocking. The coaches like (offensive line coach) Dan Buchanan, all the coaches, have helped. It’s a team effort.”
After the record-setting run, the referees stopped the clock and Mireles — who was on the sidelines — met Spegal near midfield to congratulate him and hand him a special game ball, his way of passing the record on to the state’s new leading rusher.
“When I broke it six years ago, Otis Shannon had it before I did, and he passed it down,” Mireles said. “I remember thinking, that’s neat for him to take his time out. I broke his record, he had 14 it for 14 years. I said, when it’s time for mine to be broken, I want to be there for it. It’s the right thing to do, pass it on. I did it, and now it’s (Charlie’s) turn. Hopefully when somebody eventually breaks his, he’ll do the same.”
Mireles wasn’t upset to see his record be broken after six years.
“I’m just going to smile,” Mireles said shortly before watching Spegal break his record. “Records are meant to be broken. I’m not the first one to ever break a record and I’m not going to be the last.”
It might take a while for someone else to get to wherever the new record ends up.
After Friday’s win, Spegal sits at 8,283 yards for his career, with six regular-season and at least one tournament game remaining to add to his rushing record and push it into “will it ever be broken?” territory.
The Dragons as a whole didn’t look quite as dominant as their standout running back has in his four seasons, though. The win was their 42nd consecutive HHC victory and 57th overall, tying Hobart for the fourth longest streak in state history, but it wasn’t always pretty.
New Palestine struck early, as one play after Spegal’s record-breaking run, Lincoln Roth hit Ryker Large for a 51-yard touchdown pass. The Dragons defense forced a three-and-out, and after the offense stalled, Yorktown fumbled away the punt, setting Spegal up for a 1-yard TD run just a few plays later. They pushed the lead to 27-0 late in the first quarter with a pair of TD passes from Roth to Blake Austin, a 26-yarder and a 32-yarder.
Roth, who has had a strong start to his junior season, had a bit of a breakout game, finishing with 143 yards on 9 of 16 passing with three touchdowns. He started 7-for-8 before slowing down. The junior added 111 yards on seven rushes with a 23-yard TD, and he had a 58-yard run in the second quarter.
“Once they came out in the first and they started stacking the box, we knew we were going to have to beat them over the top. That’s what we did,” Roth said. “I thought we executed well. We missed a couple of throws, but we’ll get that down.”
The Red Rage defense held the Tigers to just four yards of total offense in the first quarter, all gained on the final snap of the opening frame, a five-yard pass. Yorktown didn’t get a first down until four minutes had elapsed in the second quarter, and only got that with a 4th-down holding penalty called on the New Palestine secondary.
After Yorktown cut the lead to 28-6 with a long drive that needed three fourth-down conversions to proceed, Roth and Spegal scored less than two minutes later, triggering the running clock with a 35-point margin at the break.
The Dragons out-gained the Tigers 332 to 69 in the first half. Richard Clevenger and Matt Brown both had sacks in the first half. Maxen Hook, Aven Jones and Hunter Burks all had big tackles for losses on Yorktown running plays.
For the game, the Red Rage allowed just two rushing yards and 189 passing yards. That effort was needed due to some sloppiness from the offense throughout the game.
“Coming off that Center Grove game, I think our defense is very keyed in,” Dragons senior Kyle King said. “We were so used to playing that aggressive at Center Grove, we just came out and got our work done in the first half.”
Spegal added two third-quarter touchdowns to extend the lead, and the Dragons got their starters out of the game for the fourth quarter to finish off the blowout win.
With the win, the Dragons move to 3-0 and 1-0 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference. They will host county rival Mt. Vernon next week. The Marauders also moved to 3-0 and 1-0 with a win against Greenfield-Central on Friday.
The Dragons have plenty to work on before the Boundary Rail game.
“Thankfully our defense played really well, because our offense did not. I thought our special teams were strong, so thankfully two of the three phases of that game kind of held us on there,” New Palestine coach Kyle Ralph said. “You look at the score, you say, ‘What are you talking about?’ But our offense just played poorly tonight. That’s our fault as coaches. We’ve got to prepare them better. It almost looked like night and day between our offense and defense.”
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Heritage Christian (2-1) at Eastern Hancock (3-0), 7 p.m.
Mt. Vernon (3-0) at New Palestine (3-0), 7:30 p.m.
Greenfield-Central (0-3) at Pendleton Heights (2-1), 7:30 p.m.
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In Tuesday’s edition of the Daily Reporter, we take a closer look at the career of New Palestine running back Charlie Spegal, who has already broken numerous school and state records and has at least seven games left to add to the record books.
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