A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN: Young Cougars can’t keep up with top-ranked Dragons

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Greenfield-Central's Lance McKee rolls out of the pocket against New Palestine on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)

For the Daily Reporter

GREENFIELD — The final all-Hancock County match-up of 2019 pitted two programs 12 miles apart geographically but drastically further apart in terms of expectations. For top-ranked New Palestine, championships are on everyone’s minds. For Greenfield-Central, incremental improvement of a team full of freshmen and sophomores is the goal. In match-ups like these, final scores like the one on Friday night, 68-0, happen.

From the opening snap, New Palestine showed what kind of talent they have. With all of the Cougar defenders geared up to stop running back Charlie Spegal, quarterback Lincoln Roth faked the handoff to Spegal and kept it himself and went untouched for a 69-yard touchdown run.

The Cougars’ best offensive drive occurred on their first drive. In their wishbone, the Cougars executed a few nice runs to get the ball to midfield. But a fumble ended the drive.

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“Playing against the wishbone is a talent neutralizer,” Dragons coach Kyle Ralph said afterwards. “It doesn’t matter how good your players are going against (the wishbone). If you don’t execute your defensive assignment perfectly, you can get gashed.”

The Cougars were right on that first drive to key on Spegal. Before halftime, Spegal had scored five touchdowns as the Dragons’ lead ballooned to 55-0. With his fifth touchdown, he surpassed Brett Law of Sheridan High School as the all-time touchdown leader in Indiana history. Spegal finished the game with 286 yards rushing on 20 carries with six touchdowns.

“They told me at halftime that he had broken the record,” Ralph said. “That’s four major all-time records this kid has set. And what’s great about it is that if he didn’t break the record he’d work just as hard to help us win. He’s a great kid.”

The victory is New Palestine’s 60th regular season victory in a row, which ties the mark for second-longest in state history. For Greenfield-Central, improvement is on the mind.

“First, New Pal deserves everything they get; they may be the best team in the state regardless of class,” Cougars coach Travis Nolting said afterwards. “We’ve said from the beginning, we need to get these kids better every day. We only have two 18-year olds on the team. We’re playing a lot of freshman and sophomores in key spots. Games like this are going to be challenging.”

Next week, New Palestine will host Shelbyville for its homecoming game. Greenfield-Central will travel to Yorktown. Both games kickoff at 7:30 PM.